Haven
by AmetheSecond
Summary: Harry's graduated from Hogwarts, turned eighteen and defeated a Dark Lord. Now what is he going to do with his life? Slash HPDM Warnings: Manipulative!Dumbles. I wouldn't go so far to say Weasley!bashing but um, I'm close. A few minor character deaths.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Haven  
Chapter One  
Author: Amejisuto  
Fandom: Harry Potter  
Pairing: Harry/Draco, various background pairings but the main one will be Fred/George/Lee.  
Rating: R  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
Warnings/Squicks: Manipulative!Dumbles. I wouldn't go so far to say Weasley!bashing but um, I'm close. A few minor character deaths are mentioned, but not any of the main characters. More warnings may be added as I write the story.  
Summary: Harry's graduated from Hogwarts, turned eighteen and defeated a Dark Lord. Now what is he going to do with his life?  
Beta'd by the wonderful Suki Bluec. Thank you dearest!

Notes: First of all, I tend to totally ignore HBP and DH. I tend to think JK lost the plot sometime halfway through OotP, but that's just my opinion. So yeah, this is a total AU after book five. Don't look for quick updates with this story, I'll try to put up a new chapter once a month. Oh, and for any HP reading that haven't read my Spander epics, I tend to suck at writing smut so there will be much on the friendship and THEN the relationship and then a tiny bit of smut. LOL Hope y'all enjoy the show!

**Chapter One**

Underneath the rubble of the Three Broomsticks, Harry found the ugliest dog he had ever seen.

He wasn't even supposed to be in Hogsmeade. Despite the fact that he'd graduated Hogwarts and had finally managed to destroy Voldemort, Dumbledore had ordered Harry to stay locked up at the Dursley's. Like that was going to happen. He was an adult and no longer under the Headmaster's thumb. Witches and wizards were coming from all over to help Hogsmeade rebuild so Harry had performed a cloaking spell to hide his magical signature and figured the Old Coot wouldn't find him as long as he kept to the back alleys and side streets of the old town.

The dog – puppy really – was obviously of Fang's get, his son or daughter. Hagrid had always called Fang a boarhound and Harry had often got confused about that. He had the boarhound's size but also had a mastiff's floppier ears and jowls. Either way, Fang had been the biggest, kindest dog he had ever met, as well as the biggest coward.

Well, up until the end of course. Hagrid had fallen protecting the entrance of Honeydukes when the Death Eaters had launched their final attack. For once in his cowardly life, Fang had attacked, trying to protect his master. Neither survived.

Now that the funerals were over, the wizarding world was trying to clean up. Harry had been forced to hide his magical signature not only so Dumbledore couldn't find him, but also the various owls, house elves bearing messages, and annoying reporters. He'd even gone so far as to buy a charm so that if anyone took his photograph their entire roll of film would be ruined. He was tired of being hounded for public appearances and speeches. He'd done what he had been forced to do, and now all he wanted was to be left alone.

The puppy was abandoned, and Harry could find no sign of his mother, and it was a him. The dog was weaned at the very least; that was probably why it had been rummaging through the garbage behind the Three Broomsticks for food. From the looks of it though, Fang's girlfriend had been an Irish Wolfhound. The puppy was mostly black but had some brindle marks on his back and there were spots of wiry hair in odd places. Not a total coat really. Either something had caused the pup to lose over half its hair or it was born that way. Either way, it looked like the dog had been caught in some sort of explosion or curse and had been singed. It also had Fang's slobbering jowls, but its ears were much smaller. It gave the pup a rather lopsided appearance.

Despite not quite reaching Harry's knees, its feet were as big as his hands. Once it was grown, it was going to be huge. Probably taller than Harry. While on all fours.

A part of Harry wondered if Fluffy had been Fang's lady friend, but that thought was rather disgusting and he pushed it from his brain. Ick, urgh, ick.

He knelt down and made a clicking noise with his tongue. "Hey, little guy." Now there was a joke if he ever heard one. "Where's your mum? Are you all alone?"

The puppy scampered over to him, wriggling around and wagging its tail in happiness. Of course, the force of the wagging almost knocked Harry onto his arse, which just seemed to encourage the pup more as he tried to wriggle into Harry's lap. A large tongue, one that seemed too big for the pup's mouth, appeared and licked Harry's neck and face.

"Urgh! Stop that, you little monster!" The words did nothing to chastise the pup. If anything, he wriggled even more and tried to climb under Harry's shirt. Harry, for the first time in what seemed like forever, started laughing. While the puppy was ugly, it was enthusiastic in a way only a young creature could be, sure that anyone would love him. The more Harry laughed, the more he was licked and wriggled at until Harry ended up flat on his back in the rubbish and dust.

"Harry!"

All laughter fled when Harry heard that voice and he looked up to see Remus Lupin at the end of the alley. His feelings towards Lupin changed as much as the moon that controlled the werewolf. Remus had supposedly been a friend to his parents as well as to Sirius. Then again, Remus believed that Sirius was guilty and belonged in Azkaban and had ignored Harry for years. After Sirius' death, Remus had promised to be there for him, and then disappeared again. Oh, he said it was on Dumbledore's orders, but if one of his good friends had a child and was left alone, Harry would do anything for him or her, including telling the Old Coot to sod off. He couldn't understand why Lupin wouldn't do the same.

Harry just wasn't sure what to make of the man. Just seeing him made Harry's stomach twist about uncomfortably, and he pulled the pup closer to him. He wasn't sure if he was trying to protect the dog, or if he was hoping the dog would protect him.

"Harry, what are you doing here? Why aren't you with the Dursleys?"

Harry frowned and stood up, awkwardly jostling the puppy in his arms. Lupin was towing the Headmaster's line, trying to make him feel guilty for not staying around to be abused. Evidently Harry either had to place himself under house arrest at the Dursleys or Grimmauld Place despite the fact that he was now over the age of eighteen and had fought and defeated a Dark Lord with little to no help from the Old Man.

Bollocks to that.

He held the dog close and closed his eyes. His Apparition skills were good, but this was the first time he was attempting to Side-Along Apparate an animal as big as this dog. He visualized his destination -- the sitting room of the flat he'd rented temporally in Redhill -- and Apparated.

When he opened his eyes he was in his flat, and the puppy was not happy. He set the dog down and it started sniffling around. The flat he was staying at was an older one and was mostly empty. Oh, there was a couch and tables and chairs, but no pictures or nick knacks that you'd see in a person's home. The only thing that gave his rooms any personality at all was the perch his owl, Hedwig, was sitting on by the window. It was just a place to stay until he figured out where he wanted to live. Looking down at his newly acquired pet, that was going to have to happen sooner rather than later.

The puppy went to sniff at Hedwig's perch and acted as if he was about to lift a leg. Harry jumped to stop him, but before he could, Hedwig opened one eye and let out a loud hoot. The puppy started and soon there was a wet patch on the floor.

Harry sighed and sat down on the couch. As if he didn't have enough to worry about with Lupin and Dumbledore, now he had to train a puppy. He pulled his wand out of his holster and with a wave both the mess and the puppy had been cleaned to a certain extent. That would have to do for now.

"Well, puppy, it looks like you're mine now. What are we going to call you?" The puppy came over and wriggled more, causing Harry to laugh again. He could have kept the dog just for that reason alone, despite his connection to Fang. He hadn't had enough reasons to laugh in the past two years or more. Since Sirius died, really. Sirius would have liked the puppy, too. The thought crossed his mind to name the pup Padfoot or Snuffles but he rejected it almost as quickly. The puppy was his own person, dog, and didn't need the burden of a name pressed upon him.

Harry knew about that all too well.

A lick on his neck and ear made him laugh again and drew him out of his thoughts. "Right. We'd best get you kitted out, because I don't think Hedwig would appreciate you taking another piss on her perch, or eating her owl treats." He gently shoved the pup off of him and stood up, grabbing one of Dudley's old shirts from the back of a chair. He Transfigured it into a stout collar and lead and put them on the squirming animal. His Transfigurations wouldn't last more than six hours, but that was long enough for him to walk down to Pets At Home and go shopping. Thank god it was only a twenty minute walk.

Three hours later, he returned with a puppy ready to sleep and himself wanting a bath. How Muggles got through the day without shrinking charms, Harry didn't know. Then again, they had cars with large boots and didn't have to carry things. He made a mental note to see if he could find someone to teach him how to drive. The puppy hadn't liked Apparating and, to be truthful, Harry wasn't too fond of it either. Oh, it would be fine to travel somewhere quickly, but for trips to the store, a car -- or better yet a Land Rover -- would be much more practical.

The first thing he did once he'd unshrunk everything was dig out the stainless steel doggie bowls and the dog food. He mixed a can of wet food with two scoops of dry, his nose wrinkling at the smell. He set it on the floor and the puppy perked up, coming over to eat as Harry filled the water bowl halfway. It was enough to give the dog a good drink but not overfill his bladder. He'd already spent a good half hour talking about paper training to one of the shop assistants and now knew more about potty training than he'd ever thought possible.

As the still-nameless dog ate, Harry dug out the collar and lead. He'd have to take the dog on another walk after he ate so he'd do his business outside. The assortment of grooming items, and vast amounts of nylarbones, squeaky toys, tug ropes, kong toys and treats were all unpacked and placed in different piles on the small kitchen table.

With a sigh Harry realized that the dog had more stuff than he did. He really needed to go shopping. He then came to the conclusion that he'd have to find a place to live permanently first, that way he'd have less stuff to move.

A few hours later, Harry finally crawled into bed. The puppy had been walked twice, bathed for real instead of a charm that Harry could only halfway do, and had been brushed and played with. He'd even remembered to give the puppy a treat every time he took him outdoors, trying to re-enforce the idea that using the toilet outside was a good thing.

He'd also spent time with Hedwig, preening her feathers and just talking to her. He was hoping to find somewhere out in the country to settle in because it was just impossible for the bird to join he and the dog on their walk -- one rarely saw owls in Redhill Town Center. He'd bought a few feeder mice at the store and had given Hedwig a couple as a treat.

He'd also fed two of them to his pet snake, Edmund. After Sirius's death, he'd been shipped back to the Dursleys, and while he was to write a letter every day to assure everyone that his relatives hadn't killed him yet, he hadn't been allowed to talk to any of his friends, and Hermione had never tried to phone. As if Voldie would ever stoop to eavesdropping on Muggle telephones about OWL scores.

Many of the Order of the Phoenix had disagreed with Dumbledore trying to isolate him yet again, but only Hagrid had done something about it. He'd bribed Mundungus Fletcher to bring Harry his birthday gift a bit early – a common black adder.

After listening to the snake complain that everyone except for him and Harry were intellectual morons and how he was surprised the Dursleys hadn't stopped breathing simply because they were too stupid to continue, he'd named the snake after the Muggle comedy series. Edmund made Professor Snape seem positively charming, the only difference being that Edmund considered Harry to be intelligent because he had the forethought to have a wonderful snake like himself.

Edmund, and Hagrid, had saved his sanity that summer.

But thinking about Hagrid had led to thoughts on earlier that day, and how Dumbledore and the Order wanted him back under their thumbs. The sooner he found a place to live, the sooner he could cast _Fidelius_ and feel safer at night. Those depressing thoughts had led to Harry taking the puppy out for a walk again, if only to laugh at the dog when he found some sort of interesting smell and wriggled.

As he climbed into bed he refused to think about anything more than letting Hedwig out for a fly and trying to keep the puppy from taking over the bed. Everything else could be dealt with later.


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Haven  
Chapter Two  
Author: Amejisuto  
Fandom: Harry Potter  
Pairing: Harry/Draco, various background pairings but the main one will be Fred/George/Lee.  
Rating: R  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. .  
Warnings/Squicks: Manipulative!Dumbles. I wouldn't go so far to say Weasley!bashing but um, I'm close. A few minor character deaths are mentioned, but not any of the main characters. More warnings may be added as I write the story.  
Summary: Harry's graduated from Hogwarts, turned eighteen and defeated a Dark Lord. Now what is he going to do with his life?  
Beta'd by the wonderful Suki. Thank you dearest!

Notes: First of all, I tend to totally ignore HBP and DH. I tend to think JK lost the plot sometime halfway through OotP, but that's just my opinion. So yeah, this is a total AU after book five. Don't look for quick updates with this story, I'll try to put up a new chapter once a month. Oh, and for any HP reading that haven't read my Spander epics, I tend to suck at writing smut so there will be much on the friendship and THEN the relationship and then a tiny bit of smut. LOL Hope y'all enjoy the show!

**Chapter Two**

The next few days were busy for Harry, which was how he liked it. Busy meant he didn't have to time to brood. The puppy had been taken to a Squib vet in Chelsea and had his vaccinations both magical and Muggle, and was the proud owner of a full set of tags as well as anti-flea, anti-worm and anti-Chizpurfle charms on his new leather collar. Harry had also found a puppy day care, a new business idea that was becoming popular, where he could take his new dog and let him stay while Harry was busy doing other things, and they'd socialize the dog and help Harry train him. Within ten minuets the pup had learned how to sit, which was a good thing considering how huge he was going to get.

He even had a name – Scrappy. He was much braver than Fang had been. The perfect Gryffindor of a dog.

He'd also been spending a good amount of time at Gringott's. He'd found out when he went to see about a loan to buy a farmhouse that he had a good bit of money. He'd assumed he just had his trust vault but that turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg, and that wasn't even including the Black Family vaults he'd inherited.

Harry was in shock. He had a stock portfolio.

He wasn't even sure what that was, much less what to do with it. So after two days of signing forms that had been waiting for him for over two years, Harry was having to learn how to keep his books and go through inventories of his vaults. Thankfully, there were goblins at the bank who would teach him, for a certain price.

That was another thing he'd found out, goblins would do anything if you paid them enough. They were greedy, vicious little buggers, but once you bought them they stayed bought. He'd not only hired a goblin to help him learn how to handle his finances, but he'd hired a warding team to protect his new home. The goblins even had the ability to set wards that would allow Muggle appliances, so Harry could buy a telly, stereo and computer, something he was really looking forward to.

And his home was another thing he was shocked by. Apparently he owned several properties, one of them a smallish castle outside of Farnham that had apparently been under the _Fidelius_ charm since his great-grandparent's time, located on a large plot of land that everyone had forgotten about. It would take a couple of week's for the magical construction team he'd hired to re-wire the place and make sure the facilities were modernized, not to mention making sure the walls and roof wasn't about to fall in, but when it was done he'd have a home that merged the best of the magical and mundane worlds together.

There was even a barn with a stable, which Harry couldn't help but be excited over. For the past two years he'd spent time helping Hagrid with not only the thestrals in the giant's care, but the hippogriffs, Aethonans and other large animals Hagrid cared for.

Okay, not the Acromantula, or the Blast-Ended Skrewts, but Fluffy turned out to be quiet nice once Hagrid introduced Harry to her.

Once all that was settled, Harry also had the responsibility of cleaning out Hagrid's little gamekeeper's hut. Apparently, Hagrid had left everything to him and Luna in his will. It made sense; he and the dreamy Ravenclaw were the only two students who got his fascination with odd animals.

Animals didn't judge. They didn't care if you were a half-giant, or Loony. They didn't try to mold you into the perfect symbol of the Light. They cared that they were comfortable, well fed and that they were cared for. They didn't gossip, or pry into your feelings when you didn't want them to. Well, Hagrid's runespoor gossiped but only with itself. For the most part though, animals took you for who you were and didn't try to change you. 

There was something comforting about that fact, which was why Harry had ordered special features to be added when the remodeling of his house was done. After all, Luna was going to be living with her fiancé Neville once she was married next year, after she graduated from Hogwarts, and Harry just couldn't see Nev's Grandmother allowing Larry, Moe and Curly in her house, not to mention Sparky and Monty.

So he'd go and pack up Hagrid's things and take in all of his pets. Well, Fluffy would be happier in the forbidden forest but Sparky, Hagrid's salamander, had to be kept near a fire that was constantly burning and he tended to spit fire at most of the house-elves. And Hagrid's snakes and, well, most other things Harry just knew he'd find. The bowtruckles had to be freed into the forest, things like that. It was the least he could do for the man who changed his life twice, once when he was eleven and once again six years later.

It was well over a week, and getting close to September 1st, when Harry was finally able to find time to clean out Hagrid's hut. He'd been busy, sending letters to his personal friends and assuring them of his health but never really telling anyone where he was living, avoiding the Order and trying to keep Molly Weasley from giving him the third degree. 

He'd also been taking driving lessons as well as training sessions with Scrappy at The Puppy Palace, his doggie day care, and learning to balance a basic set of ledgers from Grimlock, the goblin in charge of the Potter accounts and who was now taking the lead with the Black accounts.

Hogwarts may have taught him how to transfigure a desk into a pig, or do a charm on his possessions so they float along behind him, but they didn't teach him about paying bills and keeping a checkbook. Thank god he knew how to cook. Harry wondered if there were other people who just graduated finding that their education was less than well-rounded. He figured their families probably stepped in and filled in the gaps, while Harry was having to muddle about on his own.

Then there was the 'small castle' he'd inherited. Caer Gwydion was slightly larger than Hogwarts, and the land surrounding it was even more vast, so much so that Harry found it hard to believe that Muggles didn't notice the fact that there was this huge thing in the middle of Surrey. Nog, the goblin engineer who was the foreman of the construction company he'd hired, had tried to explain to him using Muggle terms, the only problem being Harry had no clue about physics, or the complicated Arithmancy needed to create a fold in space so it was all rather lost on him. 

More and more he cursed the fact that he'd taken Divination instead of Runes and Arithmancy.

Still, Harry was looking forward to the renovations being complete at Caer Gwydion. He had yet to go into the castle itself, and had only Apparated to the gazebo on the front lawn that was secured for such things, but what he saw of both the castle and grounds made him yearn to explore. So much so that he'd owled the Twins and asked them to buy him a wizarding tent. It wasn't one of the huge models, but it had a bedroom, kitchenette and a sitting room and was slightly bigger than his flat in Redhill. He figured he might as well set up on the front lawn until the worst of the remodeling was over with.

So he'd packed up everything in his small flat and brought it along with him to Hagrid's hut. Instead of a Land Rover he'd bought a Porting Platform off of the Goblins. It was a platform that expanded to about four meters by five and he'd be able to not only shrink and stack everything but stand on it to port back to his Holding.

Harry loved it. The Goblin he'd bought it off taught him to use it, and instead of that nauseating feeling of being hooked in his navel it was more what he imagined riding a surfboard might feel like. It was a bit of a thrill and Harry was looking forward to doing it again.

Today it was getting a workout. Luna wasn't able to help him out, and dreamily told him she trusted Harry to portion out Hagrid's property correctly. He might have resented it if it wasn't for the fact that she was currently undergoing a summer apprenticeship at the _London Times_. Turns out that Loony Luna hadn't been hunting for rare creatures over each vacation but getting a Muggle education. 

Hagrid's hut was only one room, but the half-giant had a multitude of hiding places. Harry had already unearthed a variety of alcoholic drinks, kick knacks of all varieties up to and including a magical nose hair-trimmer which he was planning to send to his Uncle Vernon in hopes that it would scare the man to death, and a series of Muggle books about dragons that Charlie Weasley had given the man over the years. Harry was planning to send them back to Charlie, but only after copying them for his own reading. He'd never had time to read for his own amusement before, and he was looking forward to it. 

There were two animals he knew he'd be shipping to Luna, unless the blonde convinced him to keep him for her. Tied outside of the hut, on the edge of the now neglected pumpkin patch, were two small creatures Harry had never seen before. They were about the size of a small terrier or crup, had small, malformed wings that would let them hover a bit but not really fly, looked like a miniature sheep and had a single, crumpled horn in the tops of their heads.

If the animals weren't crumpled-horned snorkacks, Harry was going to eat Scrappy's dog food for dinner. He just wondered how Hagrid got a pair of them and if they were a breeding pair ... and how one would check the sex of creatures that until now were imaginary.

Harry shrugged and went back inside to continue packing and cleaning up the hut. He'd let Luna figure it out.

_"What isss thisss placsse like that we are going to?"_

Harry rolled his eyes and tried to ignore the serpentine conversation going on. The snakes were all gathered in Hagrid's living room gossiping. Edmund was currently telling The Stooges, the runespoor, and Monty, the reticulated python that Hagrid bought for himself when he bought Edmund for Harry, all about the wonderful grass, warm rocks and the juicy ground squirrel he'd found while Harry had been discussing wards with the goblins at Caer Gwydion.

The runespoor was one of Hagrid's newer acquirements and had only been with the half-giant a few months since the end of term. The critical head, Moe, was annoying in the extreme and to keep Larry and Curly from biting him, Luna developed a special silencing charm so that Harry and other snakes could hear all three heads, but the runespoor, for the most part, couldn't hear themselves talk. It made quite an amusing sight, especially when the three heads wanted to slither away in different directions and ended up falling on all three of their faces.

To tell the truth Harry wasn't too fond of The Stooges. Like many of Hagrid's pets, they were irritable and difficult to handle. He'd give the snake to Professor Snape if it wasn't for the fact he doubted the acerbic Potion Master would be able to live with the runespoor. Despite the silencing spell the three heads still fought and it would end up as ingredients despite the fact that it would be smarter to keep them alive for an unlimited supply of venom and shed skin. 

Harry was finally on his last crate, folding up Hagrid's fur bedding with the idea of letting Scrappy use it. He wasn't sure what he was going to do with half the things he had packed, tea cups the size of soup bowls were useful but tankards the big enough for four bottles of stout was a bit too much. As he was trying to roll up what looked to be a bear fur the size of a small lorry, there was a loud pop that sounded in the room, making Harry jump.

"Harry Potter Sir!"

It was Dobby. Harry always smiled when he saw Dobby. Part of it was the small creature's choice of outfits; today's was three tea cozies as hats, three mismatched socks, one of them in use as a tie, and a pair of old shorts that were red and white stripes that were pulled up to his armpits.

And part of it was the fact that one of his most fond memories was seeing the little house-elf slam Lucius Malfoy into a wall. "Hello, Dobby." 

"Harry Potter needs to be leaving now, Sir! Dumblydore knows Harry Potter is here and is trying to keep him from leaving!" 

Harry bit his lip to keep from swearing. Part of him wanted to confront Dumbledore, demand answers to many of the questions that had been building up over the past two years. But that was what he usually did and the Headmaster was probably counting on it. 

"Bollocks. Okay ... right, Dobby? Can you help me pack the rest of this stuff up? And maybe get the two ... animals out back into kennels or something? The Platform is outside, you can just stack everything up on it."

"Dobby is happy to be helping The Great Wizard Harry Potter!" Dobby snapped his fingers and what was left of the bedding began to fold itself as the crates he had finished packing began to float out the door and fit themselves in with his old school trunk and other boxes he'd brought from his apartment.

Harry turned to the chair and hissed to his snake menagerie. _"Time to go everyoness. Edmund, Monty, Stoogesss, follow the cratesss and get on the Platformss."_

Edmund must have heard something in his voice. While he hadn't bonded to the adder as his Familiar -- that was reserved for Hedwig -- the snake spent enough time with Harry to know when something was wrong. _"What'sss wrong?"_

"The Old Coot ssseeksss to trap usss here."

All three, or five if you counted the runespoor as three, snakes hissed angrily at that and Monty, the large python that usually only moved that fast in order to catch a meal, slithered out of the chair and made for the door. The Stooges coiled themselves up and sprung onto a crate as it floated out of the door, for once moving in tandem as all three heads hated being caged and trapped. Edmund made his way to Harry as he put out an arm for his snake to make his way up to his usual spot around Harry's shoulders.

Harry wasn't prepared to confront Dumbledore, wasn't sure if it was even needed. The Old Man could twist words more than any other Slytherin he'd met. He was on Dumbledore's territory, Hogwarts wards might lock down and keep him in if he waited too long. 

He had to leave. Now.

Harry started for the door but turned before he left. He couldn't help it, this had been Hagrid's home, his very first friend and the man who had been there for him since Sirius had died. Snape may have kept him alive, and Harry was thankful for that, but Hagrid had kept him sane at a time when all he had felt was the crush of depression.

Hagrid had also taught him about people. Made him realize that people were animals just the same as some of the beasts he had been fascinated by were. In fact, humans were one of the most dangerous animals on the planet. Sharks would attack a swimmer mistaking the person for a seal, dragons usually attacked for food or to protect their young, and Nundus might be able to wipe out whole villages to protect their territory, but humans could and would kill for a new pair of trainers they coveted, or kill thousands of people because their skin was a different color or their blood wasn't as Pure as it should be.

Humans would kill because it made them feel good.

Hagrid had given him more than that though. He'd given Harry endless cups of watery tea and rock cakes that could chip a tooth if you weren't careful. He'd listened to Harry when Harry had needed to talk and had let Harry silently help in the stables or in the Forest when Harry needed a friend but didn't feel like talking.

Hagrid had been the one to open his eyes to Dumbledore's manipulation. He hadn't been smart but he knew about training animals, how giving a dog a treat and a pat on the head, or a young boy a family heirloom like his Father's Cloak and points to insure Gryffindor won the Cup at the end of his First Year, to train the animal up to be loyal.

No matter if the Master loved the dog or not.

Hagrid had been chained to the Old Man longer than Harry had been, and in the end he won his freedom while keeping the Death Eaters from entering the tunnel that led directly into Hogwarts. If Fate was kind, Hagrid was somewhere where there were endless forests, large tankards of ale, warm fires and dragons that would let him cuddle them.

He turned and left, fighting the tightening feeling around his eyes and in his chest. Hogwarts had been his first real home, but it had turned into his prison. Now he was free; he was of age, Graduated, and had killed Voldemort. Dumbledore had no more power over him, not as long as Harry didn't give him any, and that meant leaving.

The Porting Platform was on the ground as Dobby shrunk and stacked the last crate on its surface, Monty coiled on the top and Scrappy was still sleeping in the corner he'd curled up in after sniffing around the hut. The Platform was ingenious really, it could shrink to the size of a Muggle credit card for easy transport but enlarge to the size of a smallish room and carry several hundred kilos. The old carts the Goblins used to move their customers around their vaults were just for show, these Platforms were what the Goblins used when making large transfers of galleons from place to place, and to carry their Squadrons.

Okay, so it looked like an overly large tea tray. The thing was that it hovered a good two feet off the ground once the pilot took his position at the head of the Platform. The gears, ignition switch, even the steering was set in a small inlay in the floor of the Platform, the Portkey magics connecting with everything touching the floor so that one could use one's natural center of balance to keep upright, unlike wizarding Portkeys that hooked you somewhere in the middle and were made with random items that weren't designed for stability.

Harry stepped onto the Platform and used his right foot to flip the switch, causing the stability charms to envelop everything on the Platform as it rose to hover in the air. He looked up at the castle and saw two figures, one with a pointed witches hat and the other a mass of bright yellow and pink. Without a second glance he piloted the Platform into the Forest, choosing to doge tree limbs and navigate the wooded paths rather than risk being stopped at the gates to Hogwarts.

As he did so, there was a rustling sound in the trees above him. Hedwig. Last Christmas, Hagrid had given him a book on how to make your pet a Familiar, a short but rather complicated ritual along with a potion that not only let Harry communicate with his owl non-verbally, but protected her from harm and gave her a lifespan of her wizard instead of the 35 years most owls survived in captivity. Nothing short of an Unforgivable could harm her, and it gave her a sort of empathy so if someone, like a Death Eater or vengeful cousin or uncle, thought about attacking her she was warned and able to defend herself. 

Harry considered that book his third best gift ever from Hagrid, Hedwig herself and Edmund being one and two.

Harry reached into his pocket, pulled out a letter and unfolded it and tried to straighten it up. He hadn't had the chance to get refills on all his stationery and had instead got a fancy paper and envelope set at Boots when he got shampoo and other necessaries.

"Here, girl, you know who to give this to. Be careful, don't let anyone see you when you give it and don't get caught."

Hedwig landed on his outstretched arm so he could attach the letter, the baleful glare in her yellow eyes scolding him for doubting her. 

"Look, I know you can do it and all that but I worry, okay? You're not the only Mother Owl around here."

Hedwig rarely hooted but she did snap her bill and gave an almost snakelike hiss. Not for the first time he wondered if the Snowy Owl could understand parseltounge. He had caught her and Edmund talking on more than one occasion, but they always stopped whenever he made his presence known or tried to eavesdrop.

He could feel Hedwig give him reassurance through their bond and decided not to say anything else stupid, like asking if she remembered the way home. There was a new charm band on her leg that would allow her through the temporary wards at Caer Gwydion, and would also help her find the shortest route home. Instead he raised his arm so she could take flight.

"Be careful, okay? I'll see you at home later." 

Hedwig ruffled her feathers and as she took off she mussed Harry's hair and he had to smile. Hedwig had been a great friend before making her his Familiar, and now was almost like a mother figure or older sister. He'd be lost without her.

Soon he was out of the wards of Hogwarts, to the clearing that Professor Snape used to Apparate to Voldie on his spy missions. He didn't look back or even think twice, he knew Hedwig would deliver his post and be home soon. He would miss Hogwarts but he had his own home, his own _life_ waiting for him.

Scrappy had sat up but wasn't about to jump off the Platform, so Harry cast an eye to his other companions. There was a large fire box, that had been put on the Platform first thing when he got to Hagrid's, containing Sparky the Salamander. That was secure. Monty and The Stooges had made themselves comfortable, Monty lying on top of several trunks. The two kennels with the ... whatevers was settled behind him, a noise that sounded like a cross between a chirp and a baa escaping. Harry found that he really didn't want to know and the sooner he gave them to Luna, the happier he'd be. He reached up and stroked Edmund, his cool scales soothing as always.

_"Hold on, guysss, let'sss go home."_

With that, Harry pressed the button on the Platform and, for the first time, he was home.

//////////

_**Dear Professor Snape,**_

You may wonder why Hedwig is bringing this missive to you, of all people. What I am about to say is true, but I doubt you'll believe half of it. Still, there are things that need to be said so you might want to pour yourself a glass of firewhiskey or get out the really good brandy you keep hidden somewhere and sit down.

First of all, I am safe and finally in my own home. Seems that for some reason, about a 150 years ago, the Potter line was taken from their ancestral home. Hell, I didn't even know that the Potters were an Ancient and Noble House, much like the Blacks, and that I was titled. It's all a bit of a shock but Griphook and Grimlock have been helpful and I am finally learning about my House and Family. As of today, I will be living where Potters for centuries called home, Caer Gwydion. Temporary wards have been erected for my safety while the castle is inspected for dangerous stuff and pest such as doxies and nargles or what have you, and after all the work is completed the wards will change again.

At any time, you are welcome in my home. The enclosed key will allow you to Apparate through the wards to the gazebo on my front lawn. Stay there and one of my house-elves will bring you to me no matter where I am. Use it day or night, if you want to berate me for being so trusting or you want a cup of runespoor venom, it matters not to me.

Why am I giving you, out of all the adults in my life, this information? Simply put, I trust you more than any other. The Headmaster either has been by, or will be, to ask you if you know where I am and I trust you not to tell him, even if it's only because you love having information that he doesn't know.

Over the past seven years you may have hated me for my father's sake, but protected me for my mother's. You've pushed me when I needed it, taught me how to defend myself from both friend and foe, and have never lied to me or tried to paint a pretty picture of my future. You always saw me, the scruffy little boy who had no idea what was going on around him, and never my scar or my fame.

I can never, in a hundred years, thank you enough for that.

Besides, who else would I give my location to? The Headmaster? Don't make me laugh. My own Head of House, who never protected me nearly as well as you did? Mrs. Weasley? Who would be over day and night trying to coddle me into submission? Lupin? His familial bonds to me change more than the moon that controls his beast.

No, out of all the so-called authority figures in my life, only you and Hagrid have been there for me when I needed you, and now that he's gone, you and you alone have earned my trust. 

Shocked yet? It's about to get even more surreal. And yes, I know the meaning of the word.

Now, I know you've wondered why my attitude changed towards you in Sixth Year, and why I accepted that Draco was trying to break free of his Father's hold on him. The truth of it is that I owe it all to Hagrid.

You see, he pointed out to me in his way, that the Headmaster had been training me as his, I don't know, guard dog. His pawn to use to attack the Headmaster's enemies and to be locked away when not needed. Oh, Hagrid didn't come out and say it like that, it took several conversations over huge cups of tea for me to figure him out. He always used Fluffy and Fang and his other animals as an example and hemmed and hawed around.

Eventually I figured it out, but I couldn't act on that knowledge until I was out of the Headmaster's power. Don't you think it's odd that less than a week after I turned eighteen and was able to leave the Dursley's that I managed to off Voldie? Well, never mind that. I can go back and forth over my life and question which was my odd luck that caused me to get in trouble or to survive an odd situation and which was Dumbledore's manipulations of me for hours.

Still, once I realized I was being used, Hagrid said something else. "Harry," he said, and I'm putting all of his H's back in, "Harry, the thing of it is, someone who has a dog trained up to guard, usually has one trained to growl and bite at everyone but his Master. Makes his Master look powerful, that he has this great big dog under his control. Look at Fang and Fluffy, both of them sweet little things, but Fluffy is more aggressive unless you know the trick to it. It's difficult to control the old girl sometimes when she's in a mood, yeah, but she's a good dog and scares off many a Death Eater that enters the Forest. They're put off by her bark as much as her bite."

Well, it took me a while to figure it out, I'm not all that swift with puzzles as you know, but I did. And I realized that the Headmaster had you on as short of a chain as evil ol' Tom did. Hell, I don't know what reason you had for joining the Death Gluttons anyhow, but I'd bet a good bit of Galleons that the Headmaster manipulated you into it so he could have a spy.

That's why I was able to make amends, and explain just why I looked into your pensive. And that's why I tried to stop fighting with you, well at least not when we weren't in public. I realized also that you had to be nasty to me so the Jr. Death Gluttons wouldn't get any ideas. 

That was also why when I saw that Draco Malfoy was having second thoughts I let up on him, as well as Zabini and Parkinson. They had been trained by their families to follow blindly as much, if not more than, I had. If anything, I envied them, they were breaking free no matter how difficult it was for them.

I know my fellow Gryffindors hated me for it, but it was the right thing to do. Some days I thought that standing by Draco and the others made things harder for them, and I only hope knowing that one person believed in them helped. Not that I'm crazy enough to ask. Draco may be a friend now but he's still a Slytherin. He'd make my life a living hell. 

Still, those are my reasons. I couldn't blame you for being a snarky git if it was the Headmaster's idea, or if it was your way of protecting me. And it seems like once I pulled my head out of my arse, we were able to get along better so ...

Yeah. If you want to tell the Headmaster where to stick his teaching job, or if you find he no longer has need of a spy, now that Tom is filling up a dustpan and I'm out of his reach, use the key and come visit. I haven't been in the castle yet but it's bigger than Hogwarts so there must be some potions lab or dank dungeon for you to haunt somewhere if you want. There's a really great garden with enough variety of plants that I'm sure will make Neville swoon so there's probably potion ingredients somewhere around. I haven't had time to look just yet. Or, in more formal terms ...

The Head of the Ancient and Noble Houses of Potter and Black consider you, Severus Tobias Snape of the Ancient Line of Prince, a Friend of our Houses and may call upon us for help in your hour of need.

Okay, so right now the Houses of Potter and Black consists of me, my puppy, my owl, three snakes, a salamander and a bevy of house-elves that have lived at Caer Gwydion longer than I have been alive and who I don't know any names of yet. It's the sentiment that counts, right?

Sincerely, and I really mean that,

Harry Potter

Lord of the Ancient and Noble Houses of Potter and Black  
Master of Caer Gwydion

aka That Annoying Little Git  
Scarhead  
The-Boy-Who-Lived-Long-Enough-To-Blow-Up-Lord-Thingy-To-Dusty-Bits-And-Get-Really-Tired-Of-Hyphens.   
//////////


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Haven  
Chapter Three  
Author: Amejisuto  
Fandom: Harry Potter  
Pairing: Harry/Draco, various background pairings but the main one will be Fred/George/Lee.  
Rating: R  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. .  
Warnings/Squicks: Manipulative!Dumbles. I wouldn't go so far to say Weasley!bashing but um, I'm close. A few minor character deaths are mentioned, but not any of the main characters. More warnings may be added as I write the story.  
Summary: Harry's graduated from Hogwarts, turned eighteen and defeated a Dark Lord. Now what is he going to do with his life?  
Beta'd by the wonderful Suki. Thank you dearest!

Notes: First of all, I tend to totally ignore HBP and DH. I tend to think JK lost the plot sometime halfway through OotP, but that's just my opinion. So yeah, this is a total AU after book five. Don't look for quick updates with this story, I'll try to put up a new chapter once a month. Oh, and for any HP reading that haven't read my Spander epics, I tend to suck at writing smut so there will be much on the friendship and THEN the relationship and then a tiny bit of smut. LOL Hope y'all enjoy the show!

hpdmhpdmhpdmhpdmhpdmhpdmhpdmhpdmhpdm

**Chapter Three**

There was something special about waking up early enough to watch the sun rise. Of course, Harry enjoyed it much more now that he wasn't forced to cook for a family of killer whales, or hadn't been awake all night from visions and nightmares.

Oh, he had a few nightmares in his flat in Redhill, but here, on Potter lands and in the shadow of Caer Gwydion, Harry felt safer than he had ever felt before in his entire life. Nightmares just didn't seem to be able to take hold.

Of course part of that was the fact that Harry had been keeping busy from dawn and way past dusk. He was learning so many things, from how to manage his family's money to warding and melding magic with mundane technology. Not to mention finding his way around the family property.

Caer Gwydion was bigger than Hogwarts, with more rooms and several sub-levels. It had been built to withstand a siege, with the infirmary and potions lab close together in the second dungeon level, and the Great Hall, which had ceilings high enough for him to play Quidditch indoors, was in the center of the castle. Five floors of rooms above it all had balconies, so Harry could step out one of the doors of what was going to be his private set of rooms and look down three stories to the stone floor.

It was a good thing he didn't get vertigo that easily. While there were about five other ways to leave his set of rooms, Harry could see himself getting up for a visit to the loo and going out the wrong door. Of course the Head House Elf, Alfie, had assured him it was safe but Harry figured if anyone could fall out of their door it would be him.

That was another thing. Harry had House Elves. Not just one or two but a whole army of them. Well, maybe not an army, but certainly a whole bunch. When the last Potter had left Caer Gwydion, the House Elves had been left to care for the place. As far as Harry could tell, that had been over 150 years ago and all of the Elves were delirious to have a human, much less a Potter, to take care of.

There were Elves that took care of the castle, Elves that were assigned to the Kitchen or Laundry. Gordie was the Elf in charge of the Library and when Harry had dug out his old school books for the little guy he'd acted much like Scrappy. He'd wiggled in happiness before popping away.

There were also Elves that took care of the greenhouses he'd found behind the castle, and Elves in charge of the odd gray horses in the stables. Apparently there were also Elves in charge of the farm he hadn't found yet, and the gardens and orchards, and Elves who went through the two different forests on his land, looking for potion ingredients.

Penny, Alfie's mate, had decided to coddle Harry. She'd been appalled at his wardrobe and had all but ordered him out to shop the day before yesterday. She was an odd mixture of Molly Weasley and Snape actually. It was very fun to watch her fuss.

That was another thing about his Elves, they weren't quiet as subservient as most House Elves he'd seen. He still couldn't get Dobby to call him Harry, and the other Elves at Hogwarts were just as bad. Yet the Elves he'd met here had already accepted the fact that he was 'Master Harry'. Not a perfect solution but one Harry could live with.

The Elves were also ecstatic about being allowed to wear clothes. To them it didn't mean they were being forced from his service and his homes, instead it was an honor. Penny had immediately dug out an old fashioned pinafore as a dress and a starched white cap, the kind Harry always imagined the housekeepers wore in Charles Dickens books. Alfie had donned little black trousers and what looked like a frock coat. They were very proper and made Harry, in his denims and faded black Henley shirt, feel rather shabby.

There were other things to get used to as well. Finding his way around the castle was one. He'd found several interesting rooms in the few short forays he'd made while trying to keep out of the way of the various warding and construction teams he'd hired. He'd found one room that reminded him of the dojos he'd seen in the few movies he'd got to watch on the telly, and another room with musical instruments. According to Lady Anne, an ancestress who inhabited one of the paintings in the music room, there were many such rooms. Each generation of Potter who had a hobby or a special interest created a new room in the castle, and usually left a painting of themselves so they could teach future generations.

The castle itself, like Hogwarts, was magical. Harry hadn't explored too much yet, but from what he could tell, with a few exceptions, the rooms moved to suit the Master of the Castle's needs. For instance after the first time he'd visited the Great Hall, a second room had appeared to one side with a much smaller dining room setting while the huge oak tables that had filled the Hall had been pushed to the sides of the room, leaving enough room in the middle to play Muggle football if he wanted.

The re-warding and updating of the castle would be done by the middle of next week though, and then Harry could take formal possession of Caer Gwydion and the lands it protected. He still wasn't sure how he could have this much land and Muggles or the Ministry never noticed. In fact it had been the records the Goblins kept of wards that had alerted him to the property. Jim Montgomery, the Squib in charge of rewiring parts of the castle so that Muggle appliances could be powered by magic, had promised to sit down on Monday and explain it to him. Something that Harry was both looking forward and dreading all at once.

Meanwhile it was Saturday, and Harry was free. Well, not totally free. He had an appointment to meet Ron and Hermione in the afternoon. He was taking them to lunch at a Muggle restaurant, something Hermione probably wouldn't be enthused about but Ron would probably love. Then he had plans to do some shopping in the Muggle world. Penny and the Elves under her were taking care of buying new lines for the castle but Harry wanted to buy his own towels.

He'd never had a good towel. The Wizarding world was wonderful but its fashions both in clothes and in housewares were stuck in the 1800's and Harry wanted big, fluffy towels made of materials he couldn't spell and flannel sheets since it would soon be autumn and the nights would be cold. He wanted the chance to pick out his own, choose for himself for once, instead of having what kind of towels he rubbed his arse dry with chosen by his aunt or Mrs Weasley or Hogwarts.

Harry sighed and stood up. He'd been sitting on an old stone bench, one of many, that were spaced every ten meters or so around the lake. He'd taken to coming out here and watching the sun rise, the magnificent colors of the dawn reflected in the water, the only noise to bother him the sound of various birds and the fish in the lake as he threw crusts of bread Brownie, the House Elf in charge of the kitchens, brought him to feed the water fowls. It was peaceful and calm and it left Harry with a feeling of hope.

This was his home.

Harry walked back to the gazebo that was halfway between the lake and the castle. He'd set up his little tent there, since it was pretty much in the middle of the courtyard. The Stooges had decided to make the gazebo their home; once the wards were set up Harry would be able to give keys to the castle to his friends that would allow them to Apparate directly into the foyer of the castle and the gazebo wouldn't be used quite as much. Even Moe, the critical head, approved of the arrangement saying that they'd be able to guard against burglars.

As if anyone would be able to find Caer Gwydion once the wards went up.

When he reached the tent, Harry had to step over Scrappy who was still sleeping in front of the doorway. The puppy was growing rapidly, but was well behaved for the most part. He was a sucker for bits of cheddar and would all but crawl onto Harry's lap and drool all over him if he was munching on cheese and crackers. Harry had taken to buying cream cheese for the puppy's toys to try to calm the dog down. He didn't mind really, except when Scrappy drooled he didn't leave a wet spot he left a flood of slobber and Harry would find himself showering again to make himself clean.

Intellectually he knew that a dog's mouth was cleaner than a human's, germ wise, but Scrappy licked a lot of weird things during the course of a day and Harry really didn't like to think about it.

On the smallish kitchen table Harry found his breakfast set out: a croissant, a bowl of porridge with strawberry jam, a cup of tea and a glass of orange juice. The orange juice was especially welcome. You could only drink so much pumpkin juice meal after meal, day after day, year after year before you felt like you were going to turn into a pumpkin. Since coming home he'd had a different glass of juice each morning, tomato, apple, grape, grapefruit, pineapple. He wasn't sure where Brownie shopped but it was wonderful to have so many choices.

Harry was going to do something special for that Elf, maybe get him some new recipe books. Alfie and Brownie were two of the few of his Elves that could read. Harry was planning on changing that, hopefully with Gordie's help.

Harry wasn't going to mention the Elves to Hermione though, no way. That would just stir up all sorts of trouble. Besides, he sort of considered them family. After all, they'd been living in Caer Gwydion and taking care of it for generations. If one or more of them wanted to be free to explore the world, Harry would be more than happy to fulfill their wish but just the mention of it had made Alfie and Penny sputter. He didn't want to offend his little friends so he let it drop. Hopefully in the upcoming weeks he'd be able to make time to meet ALL of the House Elves that looked to him as their Master and make sure each one of them had everything they wanted or needed.

Harry remembered all too well how life was at the Dursley's. No one had ever asked to see if he needed anything. Not even the Order really. Oh, Lupin had made a few noises and Mrs. Weasley sent along a few meat pies and cakes but no one had checked to make sure he was full or that he had a good blanket when it was cold or to see if he wanted any little treat. That had felt horrid and there was no way he was going to treat his Elves that way.

Speaking of Elves, he'd forgotten about two. Harry shook his head. He'd lose it if it wasn't attached. Maybe he should get some Muggle notebooks and pens while he was out today so he could make some lists. Just trying to remember all of the Elves names alone was going to drive him barmy.

"Alfie!"

There was a popping noise and then Alfie appeared beside his table and gave an odd sort of half bow. "Yes, sir Master Harry?"

Harry grinned. Alfie was such a proper little Elf, with more dignity that most Wizards Harry knew. He was mostly bald with a fringe of hair around his large head, and a little mustache under his nose gave him the appearance of permanently sniffing a caterpillar. "Good morning, Alfie! Listen, I forgot to thank someone the other day and I was wondering if you could deliver a message for me?"

"If Sir wishes."

Harry fought the urge to roll his eyes. Hopefully they'd get to know each other well enough that Alfie would tell him to bugger off if he was too busy but he wasn't going to hold his breath. "If you don't have time, send Penny. Go to Hogwarts and look for a House Elf named Dobby. He should be easy to find, the other Elves there don't like him that much since he's freed and wears clothes. His last Master was a very bad man, and he's been working there at the school. Thank him for helping me the other day, Dobby will know what you mean."

Harry had planned to send a thank you note with Hedwig, thinking that Dobby would love to have a note from 'The Great Harry Potter!', and had been upset to find the Elf probably wouldn't be able to read it. "Now this is important, Alfie, I like Dobby even if he is a bit ... eccentric for a House Elf. If you think we could use him here at Caer Gwydion and that he'd fit in, you can offer him a job here. If he wants to be paid, that's fine, but I think he might want to come just to be near me, we've become friends of a sort. I'll let you guys sort things out." Here Harry paused. "There's also another Elf, Winky. Her last Master was another bad man and he sacked her for something she didn't do. She has a butterbeer problem, but I think if she was bonded to a family she'd be okay."

He looked at Alfie and his Head Elf nodded. "Alfie, I'm leaving the decision up to you or Penny, I trust the two of you. If you don't think they'll fit in, that's okay, I can do something else for Dobby or Winky. I don't want to mess up your household for this, okay?"

"Yes, sir! Master Harry is a wise Master! He be letting us do our jobs!"

Harry laughed. He got the feeling that was a snide comment hidden as a compliment but he didn't mind. In fact, he rather liked the fact that Alfie was being sarcastic. It was a welcome change over House Elves who would do anything for their masters and thank them for a beating.

"Whatever you say, Alfie. You know more about this sort of thing than I do. I've never taking care of a house before, much less a castle and all these lands. I'm going to rely on you to tell me what I need to be doing, okay?"

Alfie tilted his head to one side. "If Alfie may say, Sir, Master Harry should start planning list of people for Housewarming. Once work is done on castle, Sir can invite his friends to stay. The Caer is made to support many families, Sir, is too big for just one young human."

Harry grinned at that. "That's a bloody good idea, Alfie! I've never thrown a party, though, I wouldn't know what to do."

"Young Master just needs to write list of guests and Alfie and Penny can do the rest."

An idea started to form in Harry's mind but he pushed it away for the moment. "Right. I'll get on that tonight, and try to find out what day would be good for most of my friends. School starts Monday for Luna, but maybe she can take a personal day or something."

Seventh Years, well most of them, were allowed to take seven Saturdays a year to leave Hogwarts for personal reasons. Interviewing for future jobs, taking care of any matter of Family Estates if the Seventh Year was the Heir of a Family, attend public Quidditch games, just about anything a young adult wanted or needed to do. They didn't have to ask permission either, just inform their Head of House.

Unless of course, your name was Harry Potter. He hadn't been allowed Hogsmeade visits after Fifth Year, with Sirius being dead and his Muggle family unlikely to sign any forms that would allow him to leave the castle, and by Seventh Year he had been a virtual prisoner inside of Hogwarts.

Harry shook his head and pushed those dark thoughts away. He was safe at home and he was free to go wherever he wanted. Speaking of which ...

"Alfie, I think I'll go flying a bit this morning, get a look at things from the air. If Hedwig comes with me will you still be able to get a message to me if you need to?"

Alfie gave an offended sniff. "Of course, Master Harry! We House Elves have our ways!"

Harry felt a grin spreading across his face. He hadn't flown for pleasure in so long it wasn't even funny. "Great! If you need me give a yell. Oh, and I'll be having lunch out with friends today so tell Brownie he doesn't have to worry about me."

"Yes, Sir, Master Harry. Alfie will also keep an eye out in case you fall off your flying stick." With that, Alfie popped out, leaving Harry laughing. Harry wasn't sure if it was the freedom he had now, or the fact that Voldemort was no longer a mill stone around his neck but he laughed much more now.

Then again it was easy to laugh when you were surrounded by House Elves with a wicked sense of humor.

He got up and cleared away his breakfast dishes to the sink. One of the Elves would be around to take care of them later but there was no reason to let the porridge turn into cement. He then spent a good five minutes looking for his Firebolt. Penny had unpacked his old school trunk and put everything away somewhere safe, which meant that Harry couldn't find it straight away.

Once he finally found it, in a small broom cupboard in the kitchen, he found Edmund and gave him a poke. The snake was still asleep, curled up under one of the pillows in the bedroom.

_"Edmund! Eddie, wake up!"_

The adder woke up and gave him a glare that might have scared Harry if he hadn't been used to Snape. _"What do you want? I'm digesssting! I found a nice juicssy frog last night."_

_"Urgh. I thought we had a deal, I don't tell you about what vegetablesss I eat and you don't tell me what you caught for dinner. Listen, I'm going for a fly, want to come?"_

The snake closed his eyes. Normally he liked to go flying with Harry, but not while he had a full stomach. _"No, I don't think so. The frog wiggled asss it went down and it'll be a few hoursss till it ssstopsss lumping in my middle."_

Harry wrinkled his nose in disgust but reached out a finger to rub the snake in between his eyes. _"That'sss probably bessst. Have a good lie in while you can. We're going to meet up with your two favorite humansss for lunch and you'll need the energy to ssscare Ron."_

_"Joy. Now go fly and let me sssssleep."_

Harry laughed and cast a warming charm on the pillow Edmund was hiding under. From underneath he could hear a serpentine purr as the warmth settled into his friend's scales. Ron hated Edmund with a passion and the snake felt the same way about him. It had gotten to the point where Edmund would make a habit of staring at the ginger haired young man until Ron snapped.

Still Harry didn't even think about leaving Edmund home; he was a better friend than Ron at times, and Harry used him as another set of eyes. The snake could smell people or wizards under invisibility cloaks, and if someone was disillusioned or otherwise hidden he could sense their heat if they got close enough. More than once had the black adder saved his life as he walked the halls of Hogwarts and the thought of going out somewhere without the snake was alien to Harry now.

Harry climbed over Scrappy as he left the tent, feeling bad that there was no way a dog would come flying with him. He had come to love Scrappy, he was fun to play with and was a champion cuddler. Still it wasn't the same as being able to talk to Edmund or one of the other snakes that had come into his care.

Or Hedwig. Harry went to the gazebo to find Hedwig roosting in the rafters. There was an owlery in the top of one of the castle's towers but after seven years of having his owl living that far away from him, Harry was having none of it. She was staying close to him, even thought that meant the construction crew was having to put in several special windows here and there on different floors of the castle so she could come and go as she wanted.

"Hedwig?" The snowy owl looked over at Harry and blinked a greeting. "What to go for a fly?"

Hedwig hopped on her perch a couple of times in merriment and then took off, swooping around Harry twice before diving and pulling gently with her claws at his hair. The message of Harry being It was received and Harry found himself laughing and he jumped on his broom and took off after his friend into the clear morning sky.

This morning, Harry felt it was good to be alive.

hpdphpdmhpdmhpdmhpdmhpdm


	4. Chapter 4

**For warnings and disclaimers, see the first chapter of the story. **

**Chapter Four**

Harry arrived a few minutes early for his meeting with Hermione and Ron. The plan was that they'd meet at King's Cross, someplace Ron would be able to find in the Muggle world, and then Apparate to the McDonald's in Deptford for lunch. Hermione would probably analyze the menu and criticize the lack of proper nutrition, but Harry figured Ron would get a kick out of the place.

Besides, Harry had always wanted to eat something from McDonald's. It was one of the little ways his so-called family would torture him. Left without food for days, forced to go to Tesco's with his aunt so he could load the bags and push the trolley. Not to mention lugging all the bottles of orange squash and cans of Coke that Dudley would drink.

Then they'd go through the Drive Thru of the McDonald's to get "Diddykins" a little snack. As if walking through the supermarket with all that food on the shelves that he wasn't allowed to eat wasn't bad enough, he was then forced to smell the wonderful aroma of Big Macs, Chicken Nuggets and fresh chips, then be forced to unpack the boot of the car and maybe, if he was lucky, he might get the tail end of one of Dudley's sandwiches, the bit of the bread that had nothing but Special Sauce and a bit of cheese but the meat had all been eaten.

Today, Harry was going to splurge. He was planning pigging out on Big Macs, chips, a huge milkshake so thick his brains would cave in when he tried drinking it through a straw, and vast amounts of Hot Apple Pies.

Then he wanted to go shopping. He didn't think Ron could handle Harrod's, that was for another day and another friend, but hopefully he could get his friends to go with him to Marks & Spencer or Debenhams for a few things. The castle was wonderful and well equipped, but they didn't have things like microplane graters for nutmeg or mats for the shower that would keep him from slipping.

There were probably spells for that sort of thing, but that wasn't the point. Harry didn't want to become one of those lazy wizards who used a spell for everything and anything, up to and including wiping his own arse. Magic was a wonderful thing, a gift, and he was afraid if he took it for granted, one day he'd wake up and be one of those narrow-minded idiots that followed the Ministry like sheep.

That reminded Harry to make a mental note to pick up some bog rolls. Perhaps he'd find out how to order them in bulk so he could make sure there was some in each loo. That was another thing they hadn't had 150 years ago. Harry wasn't sure what they'd used back then, but he'd stick to Charmin thank you very much.

The sounds of popping not too far away dragged Harry from his thoughts. Looking through the crowds, Harry saw a familiar head of busy hair and waved to catch Hermione's attention. As he made his way through the mid-morning rush, Harry saw not one, but two ginger heads following Hermione and swore under his breath in frustration.

They'd brought Ginny along.

It wasn't that he didn't like Ginny. Well, not exactly. He just never really knew where he stood with her. For years he'd somewhat avoided her, uncomfortable with her crush on the fictional Boy-Who-Lived. During Fifth Year she had become a friend and Harry had started to relax around her, treating her much as he did Hermione and Luna.

Sixth Year started out normal, but around winter holidays Ginny started flirting with him. She became clingy, always sitting near him or needing to use the same book at the library. At first Harry had been confused, going so far as to ask the younger girl if she needed to see Madame Pomfrey for whatever was wrong with her eyes.

That had not been fun. He'd come away from that conversation with a stinging cheek and the knowledge that Ginny had just as much strength in her arm as her brothers did.

Since then their relationship was odd. Harry tried to treat her as a friend, nothing more, but it seemed to him that she would use any excuse to chase him with the intent of capturing the hand of the Boy-Who-Lived. Then she'd get mad that he wasn't taking the bait and stomp off for a week or so before the cycle started over again.

Luna was convinced she'd been bitten by a three horned werg beetle. One of his other friends said she was a psychopathic stalker. Neville didn't say much but every once in a while when the other young man wasn't looking Harry could see his quiet friend giving both Weasleys a _look_.

Ron and Hermione either stayed quiet or tried to get him to go out with her. It was one of the many reasons he found himself pulling away from his childhood friends. They just couldn't seem to understand that he wasn't interested in her _that way_.

Of course that had been only one of the reasons he was having problems with Ron and Hermione.

"Harry!" Hermione's voice rose above the din and he had to sidestep the running tackle of a hug the girl was about to give him. It wasn't that he objected to hugs, per say, it was just that if he allowed himself to be hugged by Hermione he'd have to let Ginny have her turn. Which he didn't mind if Ginny was in friend mode but if she was in stalker mode, well that wouldn't be good.

Instead of hugging her, Harry caught Hermione's arms and spun her around playfully. "Hermione! Good to see you."

"Oi! Hands to yourself Potter!" Ron's smile was just a bit too wide but Harry grinned back and slapped the him on the back. Ron always got territorial about Hermione. He'd even glare if his brothers or father talked to her too long.

Every once in a while when Harry was in a really bad mood he felt like pointing out that lesbians would probably find Hermione attractive as well but he didn't feel like causing Ron to stroke out in jealousy.

Even if it would be amusing.

"Harry! Did you miss me?" Ginny didn't grab at him, thank Merlin, but she did blink coyly. He still thought it looked like she had something in her eye.

"Like the plague, Gin." Harry grinned to take the insult away and hoped it seemed real. He didn't point out that she hadn't been invited, as much as it was on the tip of his tongue.

Harry had been spending too much time with sarcastic people.

"Come on, let's go. I've got a Portkey to the alley behind the place where we're eating."

Hermione's hands were on her hips. "Are you not going to tell us where you've been all this summer?"

"Umm, no. Because it changes. And it'll change again before I'm done so there's no need. No worries, Herm, I'm thinking about throwing a party once I'm all settled so that the people I want to know where I live will know."

Ron frowned. "Harry mate, there are still Death Eaters around, are you sure it's safe?"

"Safer than a vault at Gringott's, Ron. Come on, let's go." Harry reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a sock. He would have preferred to use one of the blank keys he was planning on using for Portkeys to Caer Gwydion but he didn't want Hermione asking questions about where he got such old fashioned keys.

Less than ten minutes later they were queuing up in line at one of the registers, Ron trying to pronounce the odd names of the sandwiches. Harry didn't see what was so hard about saying McChicken, but then again most pureblood wizards and witches had problems with electricity and telephone.

"Harry, what exactly are Nuggets? I mean, what part of the chicken are they from?"

Harry looked into Ginny's chocolate brown eyes and wished for a moment he could be what she and his friends wanted. But he couldn't do that, it wouldn't be fair to either of them. Harry might not be all that used to adult relationships, or hell, relationships in general, but even he knew that.

"They come from roosters actually. A lot of them. I mean, just think about it and you'll know what I'm talking about."

Ginny smacked him on the arm. "Prat! Why must boys always be so gross?"

"Because girls have the lurgi. Just get something and if you don't like it you can have something else."

Eventually they were able to order; the gum-chewing teen behind the register never even blinking when Ron asked about "Muggle notes" when Harry pulled a few pounds out of his back pocket.

Eventually they all got settled and Harry steered them to a table. There was no way he was sitting in a booth with Ginny.

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this place. I can just imagine my arteries hardening."

Harry rolled his eyes. Hermione was poking at her salad with a fork as if it was one of Neville's plants about to attack. Okay, so the lettuce wasn't the best for salad, what did she expect it was a fast food burger place. "Live a little. I thought Ron would love this place."

Ron, who had just stuffed a Big Mac in his gob, mumbled an affirmative.

"Really, Harry, Ron will eat anything so I don't think that's a good way to pick a restaurant. And who knows what you've been eating staying where ever you've been ... "

"Hermione, knock it off. If anything I'm still underweight so eating once at a fast food place is not going to kill me, and you eat healthy all the time so it sure as hell isn't going to kill you." Really, Hermione could be such a priss about certain things. She'd even gone on a three day hunger strike in Sixth Year to protest the lack of fresh vegetables. Harry had to admit, a salad was nice on the side after so many weeks of mushy peas and chips, but she'd done it in the middle of January.

Where the House Elves were supposed to get fresh lettuce and tomatoes in the Scottish Highlands in the middle of winter, Harry didn't know. It had taken Harry pointing out she was making the Elves jobs harder to get the girl to stop fasting, during which time Draco decided to bring up the fact that Hermione once had bucked teeth.

Harry had had to lock himself in one of the public bogs and put up a silencing charm before he laughed himself silly. The idea of Hermione as a rare human/rabbit hybrid was hilarious, especially since when she got confused or was working on a puzzle her nose wrinkled up and had a tendency to twitch.

Up till Graduation Harry had made a point to never study while sitting directly across from her. He knew for a fact he'd crack up and she'd nag at him till he said why and that would be bad.

Ginny gave him a supportive smile. "I think it's a very interesting place, Harry. Dad would love it!"

"Your Dad would go spare trying to take apart half the kitchen." Harry gave a genuine smile back. He might have a few issues with the elder Weasleys, but he did get a kick out of Mr. Weasley's enthusiasm about Muggle things.

Harry, for his part, found the food rather disappointing. It had always smelled so good but the hamburger itself was nearly tasteless and flat, and the chips were greasy and rather floppy. He wasn't sure if he'd wanted it because he thought it would be good or because it was something Dudley had had and enjoyed.

He should have known Dudley would eat anything.

"So how long before Godric's Hollow is rebuilt?"

Harry found himself almost snorting pickles through his nose as he coughed and blinked confusedly at Ginny. "Huh?"

"That is what you've been doing all this time, rebuilding Godric's Hollow, isn't it?"

"Uh, no. Why would I do that?"

Ron and Hermione were suspiciously quiet and Ginny was starting to frown. "Well, that's where you're going to live now, right?"

Suddenly Harry realized that Godric's Hollow was rather close to Ottery St. Catchpole and The Burrow. He thought about banging his head on the table but didn't want to get that nasty smelling Secret Sauce in his hair.

"Ginny, I don't think I could ever live there. Yes, I still own the property but I'm leaving it under the _Fidelus_ for now." Harry was afraid that some nut job, or jobs, would set up a shrine to him or something equally as horrifying or embarrassing. No, Godric's Hollow would remain hidden except to him and a few of the Caer's House Elves he'd told where to find it so they could keep up the grounds.

"Why not, mate? I mean, it is your family home." Ron's sounded genuinely curious so Harry let himself relax as he answered.

"It's only one of the Potter estates actually. The one where I'll be staying at is much more secure. Besides, it would be creepy living where my parents died. I mean, even if they didn't leave ghosts I'd still feel odd living there." Harry really, really, _really_ didn't want to live where his parents had fallen to Voldemort.

"Don't you think you should have talked to me before choosing where to live?"

Harry felt as if he was on the tracks and a train was headed his way. There was no way he could avoid the oncoming collision and the milkshake in his mouth turned to paste as he swallowed. "No, Ginny, I don't."

"But ..."

Harry closed his eyes in pain. No matter what he said it would be the wrong thing. Well, unless he proposed and _that_ was not happening. "Look, Gin, I like you, you're a good friend and my best mate's little sister. But I've said it before, I don't like you that way. It hasn't changed and I don't think it's going to."

Ginny's face was pale, her freckles standing out. "I ... I always thought you were just waiting 'til after you killed Voldemort ..."

"I'm sorry, Ginny. No. And if Ron or Hermione have given you any encouragement, well I'm sorry. And I'll have words with them later on. To tell you the truth, while I don't mind you being here and am glad to see you, I didn't even invite you today. I just owled Ron and Hermione."

If it was possible, Ginny lost even more color and stood up. "Excuse me I've got to ..."

She made a break for the loo and Hermione followed, glaring at him over her shoulder.

"What the bloody fuck was that all about?"

Joy. Harry now got to deal with the angry brother.

"That was me telling the bloody truth, Ron! And if I find out you and Hermione have been telling her I'm secretly pining for her, I'll hex you both into the fucking New Year! I don't like her that way, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with her or me, it just means I'm not in love with her! And I'm not going to act like a prat to get in her knickers and then tell her so!"

"She's just like your Mum, everyone says!"

"One, I have no idea since I don't remember and two, I don't have an Oedipus complex so it doesn't matter how much she may or may not be like Lilly Potter!" At Ron's confused look Harry became impatient. "Look, do you want to shag your Mum? Because I bloody well don't!"

Harry found himself wishing he'd never suggested this lunch, which in a way was idiotic. This mess would have happened no matter where they met up and it was probably better that it didn't happen in the Wizarding world or, Merlin help him, The Burrow.

"Leave my Mum out of this," Ron said, bristling.

Edmund, sensing the tension in the air, poked his head out of Harry's button down shirt.

Ron eyed the snake with trepidation, but he still looked ready to fight. "Tell me, what's wrong with my sister that you don't want to marry her?"

How this even got to marriage, Harry had no clue. Maybe there was something in the oil for the chips that made wizards insane and that's why they don't eat at Muggle fast food places. "There is nothing wrong with your sister, Ron ..." Other than the fact that she was clingy, controlling and possessive where she had no right to be. "And there's nothing wrong with me. I just see her as more of a sister than a potential mate."

That was stretching the truth out as well, but Harry didn't think a white lie in this sort of situation would be that bad. And things were already terrible so it couldn't make it that much worse.

Ron gave him a look of disgust and Harry found his hand going to his wand. "I'm beginning to think the _Prophet_ is right about you, Potter. You're arrogant."

Harry's own anger sparked and Edmund hissed to counterpoint it. "And you're a fucking prat who has no idea what he's talking about." Harry got up, the chair he was in making a screeching noise as it skidded across the ugly orange tiles.

Ron stood as well and more than one of the diners were watching them. Harry paid them no mind though, he'd never seen them before and he doubted he'd see them again. "You've become nasty ever since siding with those ruddy snakes, having one as a pet, sucking up to the Slytherins."

God. Harry was sick of Ron whinging about the fact that Harry had defended the Slytherins who had defied Voldemort at the end of Sixth Year. Every disagreement he brought it up and Harry was sick of it. It was a dead thestral, and Ron just kept hexing it and hexing it.

"No, Ron, I'm not nasty nor am I stuck up or siding with anyone against you, that's your insecurities talking. What's been happening to me is the fact that I'm growing up and no longer letting other people's views affect my own. I'm thinking for myself and standing on my own two feet. You, Ginny, hell, the entire Wizarding world seems to want this hero on a fucking white horse to save the day, and then ride off into the sunset with the beautiful princess and everyone lives happy ever after.

"I'm not that hero. Given a chance I would have moved to bloody Australia, but Voldemort would have followed. I was pushed into play by a force greater than me and now that I've played my part I'm bloody well done. I'm not some paragon of virtue or some martyr to die so that everyone but me can live. I'm an ordinary bloke who puts his trousers on like everyone else, who doesn't dare eat baked beans too early in the morning otherwise I'll fart in Transfiguration classes, and who cares about his best friend's sister but doesn't love her and refuses to lie just to make everyone feel good."

"Harry ..."

Harry wasn't sure what Ron was going to say but he didn't want to hear it. They had the same bloody conversation every four or five months it seemed. He thought that if anyone would see past the Boy-Who-Lived image it would be Ron, who had been there when he was moody, grumpy, hurt and just plain normal. The boy who lived in the dorms just a few feet away and heard nearly every nightmare, belch, fart and nocturnal emission he'd had.

Somehow though, Ron still expected him to live up to some heroic image, while at the same time was jealous of the attention. Franky, Harry had had enough.

"No, Ron. You need to take care of your sister. And you need to bloody well apologize if you're the one who's been putting ideas in her head! I'll owl or floo you later on, maybe the three of us can do this another day. And I do mean three, as in you and I and Hermione."

He turned and walked away, dumping his rubbish in the bin as he left the restaurant. It was probably a good thing he didn't like the food because he didn't think he'd ever walk into a McDonald's again.

Harry walked down the street, no destination in mind. He was angry and frustrated. He wasn't willing to let go of their friendship but damn if Ron and Hermione didn't make it hard sometimes. Then again they probably said the same thing about him.

_"That did not ssseem to go well."_

Harry gave a bitter laugh. _"Underssstatement of the year, Edmund. I don't know what to do now."_

_"Don't be a sstupid little moussse. You planned on ssshopping today, ssso ssshop. Don't let your day be thrown by an argument."_

Harry stopped and thought about it for a moment. _"You're right. How did you get sso damn sssmart?"_

_"The Maker granted me the great honor of being born a sssnake, that's how." _

There wasn't much Harry could say to that.

_hpdmhpdmhpdmhpdmhpdm_

TBC ...

Additional Author's Note: Just so y'all know, the lurgi are the British versions of cooties. And we all know that girls have them! Oh, and ten imaginary Galleons to the first to guess who calls Ginny a '"psychopathic stalker"! HEE!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Warnings/Squicks: Manipulative!Dumbles. I wouldn't go so far to say Weasley!bashing but um, I'm close. A few minor character deaths are mentioned, but not any of the main characters. Mpreg of secondary character. More warnings may be added as I write the story.

Beta'd by the wonderful Suki Blue. Thank you dearest!

Notes: First of all, I tend to totally ignore HBP and DH. I tend to think JK lost the plot sometime halfway through OotP, but that's just my opinion. So yeah, this is a total AU after book five. Don't look for quick updates with this story, I'll try to put up a new chapter once a month. Oh, and for any HP reading that haven't read my Spander epics, I tend to suck at writing smut so there will be much on the friendship and THEN the relationship and then a tiny bit of smut. LOL Hope y'all enjoy the show!

Additional Author's Note: Sorry this took so long. I had a bad allergic reaction to meds, and then an allergic reaction to what I was using to treat the hives and then ANOTHER allergic reaction and ... well, I've not been having fun. Here's the new chapter about ten days late. Sorry y'all.

HPDMHPDMHPDMHPDMHPDMHPDM

**Chapter Five**

"I mean, really, why does everyone just assume I want to marry some witch and have a herd of little nearsighted Potters running around? Yeah, I'd like to have children someday, but that day isn't today." Harry shook his head and went back to his task of helping the Twins and Lee Jordan shock the shelves at WWW. The shop didn't open until after one on Sundays, and Harry was helping his friends get ready for the rush that would no doubt happen in the afternoon, considering today was the day before the students left for Hogwarts.

"Harry mate, you should know that between Ickle Ronniekins ... "

"And our Mum filling Gin-Gin's head with visions of the perfect wedding and her own happily ever after life she'd have, with you filling in for Prince Charming ... "

"That just about everyone in the family is thinking that you and Ginny will end up together."

"Not that you're all that Charming, mind you ... "

"We tend to think you're a bit of a prat, disappearing like you did after killing off ol' Moldyshorts ... "

"With the three of us having to hear Ronniekins rant about you, and Dumbles popping in every once in a while hoping to catch you lying about on our couch ... "

"As if you'd let yourself be caught that easy ... "

"Still you owe us some major sucking up, little brother."

"Gits." Harry laughed and threw a Whoopee Cushion at Lee's head. The Twins finishing each other's sentences was bad enough, but once Lee had become seriously involved with Fred and George he'd started in too, which left Harry trying to follow a conversation from three different areas of the shop. "I can just see the mobs you'd have if I took Lee's place behind the register. Everyone and their uncles would come in to buy a Nosebleed Nougat just to be able to gawk at the Boy-Who-Lived-And-Couldn't-Make-Change and wouldn't buy a blessed thing."

"Oh no, dearest Harrykins, this isn't some minor favor you owe us." George abandoned the cases of Pinocchio Pops he was unpacking by the register and gave Harry an evil grin. Harry abandoned the display of Muggle Pranks he was stocking and moved to back away only to find Fred and Lee had moved into the aisle behind him, cutting him off.

Fred threw an arm around Harry's shoulder, pulling him close before mussing up his hair. "You see, young Harry, we have performed the ultimate brotherly act."

Lee came up and braced him from the other side, and Harry found himself squirming when a wet index finger made contact with his ear. "Fred and George have really outdone themselves this time, you might even say they risked life and limb."

"We, the unbeatable Trio of George, Fred and Lee, have done the impossible." George leaned in close and pulled at the back of Harry's jeans, grabbing hold of his pants, and pulled. Harry found himself gasping for breath and standing on his toes for a moment to keep his bits from getting squashed.

He shoved at the three older males and disgustedly wiped at his ear and trying to adjust himself all at once. He'd be pissed off if it wasn't for the fact that the Twins and Lee were treating him as a younger brother. As it was it left Harry with a warm and fuzzy feeling, combined with annoyance. "Geroff, you loons, and tell me already!"

The Trio broke off their mild torment and had the most evil grins on their faces. "We took our very lives into our hands ... "

"Quite nice hands we have too ... "

"And intercepted not one, not two, but three Howlers coming from The Burrow."

"Which is just as well because I don't think Errol could have made it into the next county, never mind wherever it is you've been hiding. Especially since he had Gin's and Mum's Howlers."

"Right loud they were too, had to open them up back in the workroom under the shielding."

"I didn't know Mrs. Weasley knew those kinds of words, never mind your sister."

Harry found himself gaping at the three young men in front of him. Okay, so they didn't realize he was under an Owl Redirect. They still went against their family, their _mother_, to help Harry out.

For about the thousandth time, Harry wished that the Twins and Lee were two years younger or he was two years older. He got along so much better with them now that he was growing up. It was easier for him to deal with their playful teasing and walking around Hogsmeade for hours with rabbit ears than dealing with Ron's insecurities and jealousy.

"Bloody hell! That's huge, mates! Thank you!"

"Oh no, Harry, a simple thank you isn't going to be enough. You owe us."

Harry rolled his eyes at the Twins. Sometimes he wondered how Lee could stand listening to the two of them talking at the same time but seeing the way the young man was smiling Harry figured he found it endearing.

People in love were barmy.

"As if I wouldn't do anything to help you guys out anyway. I still owe you for hiding me away after my birthday." It had been to the Twins and Lee he'd run to once he slipped from the guards Dumbledore had around Privet Drive. They had taught him the spells to hide his aura, how to check for tracking spells, had helped him rent a flat and hide in Surrey. Harry thought of the Twins and Lee as the older brothers he'd always wanted.

Why Ron couldn't stand the Twins he could never figure out. Yeah it would have been annoying growing up with the pranksters and being the butt of their jokes. Nine times out of ten Harry ended up pranked as well, but instead of getting mad Harry just laughed with the Twins and went along with it. As a result, the Twins didn't prank him as much.

"You, young Harry, owe us. And now we're calling it in."

"We, and by we I mean the three of us ..."

"Are putting you in servitude for the next few years."

"Not for us of course ..."

"Although we are wonderful and deserve to be worshiped, both up close and from afar ... "

"No, you'll be serving the needs of some people of our choosing ... "

"Catering to their every need ... "

"Telling them and others just how adorable they really are ... "

"Even if they're not, but all things considered I don't see how they can't be utterly gorgeous."

"You'll even wipe their ickle little bums for them."

Harry felt his jaw start to drop as he put together the trio's sentences. It was a pain when Lee got into the Twin act. "Really? It's not all three of you is it? Because the thought of all three of you having mood swings is more horrifying than picturing Dumbles in a polka-dot bikini."

"URGH! Thank you so much for that mental image, mate. I haven't had morning sickness yet but if anything will start it up, that will." Lee grinned and Harry lunged forward and hugged him, being careful not to squish the other man too hard.

"This is bloody fabulous! How far along are you?"

George pulled out his wand and conjured a Muggle recliner in lime green for Lee to sit in as they talked around the front counter. "Just a couple of weeks. We didn't start trying until after you killed Moldymort."

Lee grinned as Fred worked the lever to put his feet up. "Mum checked me out and confirmed it yesterday, everything is just fine, other than these two gits treating me as if I was glass."

Harry grinned at his three friends. "This is so great! What did Mama Erzulie say?"

Lee's mother, Erzulie Jordan was an amazing woman. Harry hadn't met her in person until this summer but he'd started writing to her in Sixth Year and he loved her to bits. For Christmas that year she'd sent him a pot of ointment that removed the scars on the back of his hand from Umbridge's quill, something that was supposedly impossible.

Erzulie Jordan had immigrated from Haiti back in the 70's with her new English husband. He had been killed not long after, leaving her to raise Lee alone. She was from a long line of Haitian _mambos_, witches that worked as healers, midwives and wise women. The British Ministry of Magic had fits with her, according to Lee. She owned a bookshop in Camden and sold potions and read fortunes from the back room, as well as providing alternative health care for many of the poorer people of London.

Mama Erzulie had been the one who had taken off all the blocks on his magical core, who had healed his bones better than that minion Pomfrey had ever done. And six months after Umbridge had been acquitted she'd come down with a rare wasting disease that stripped the meat off of the woman's frame and left her in one of the permanent wings at St. Mungo's.

The thought of Mama Erzulie and Molly Weasley fighting over the raising of grandchildren scared the hell out of him though. Harry might not be the brightest wizard but just about anyone could see that happening.

"It's too early to tell the sex yet, or anything really but Mum is certain we're going to have twins."

"We're not sure whether to hope that they're exactly like us ..."

"Or dread it. Mum's always said she hoped we had kids just like us so we'd know what a pain it was."

"Still Forge and I can't help but hope they'll be little pranksters from the get go. At the very least they can pee on their Uncle Ron a few times."

Harry laughed and patted the Twins on the back, congratulating them. He didn't ask which of the Twins was the other father, they probably didn't know themselves. Still it was a great feeling to know his friends were going to have a baby. He'd been shocked when Fred had explained the wizarding version of the birds and the bees, and the fact that gay wizards could have children. It just wasn't talked about very much. Not that something like that ever stopped the Twins and Lee.

"So, who else knows?"

Lee grinned. "We're having Katie Bell over for dinner tonight, we figured we'd tell the future godparents first, then tackle Fred and George's family. Of course we'll probably wait a while now that Uncle Harry had stirred up Mrs. Weasley."

"Godparents?" Harry found himself wanting to sit and jump up and down all at once. "Do you really mean it?"

"Of course not!"

"I mean who in their right mind would make ickle Harrykins a Godfather?"

"He doesn't follow rules."

"He hates authority figures, especially duplicitous ones ..."

"And he's the son of a Marauder!"

Lee laughed and flipped the Twins off. "You forget, none of us are in our right minds. It's why we run this shop."

"Oh, that."

"We forgot." Fred and George looked at each other and grinned before speaking simultaneously. "Of course you're going to be the Godfather!"

Harry felt tears come into his eyes but ignored them, although he couldn't hide the hoarseness of his voice. "Thanks guys. I'll do everything for the little nippers. Anything. You guys are my family and I'm going to be the best Godfather there ever was."

In his mind Harry was already making plans. A trust fund needed to be set up and he had more than enough money, he could even do like Sirius did and make the baby twins his Heirs, at least to the House of Black. Sirius would have gotten a kick out of that, he had admired the Twins and their trickster ways, it would be fitting.

There were other things to consider too. The Twins and Lee could bring the babies to the castle for babysitting, or they could all move into Caer Gwydion. The apartment above the shop would be too small for five people, it barely accommodated three. There was more than enough room and the Elves would love to have more people to serve. For that matter he had several Elves whose specialty was child care. They'd be beside themselves in happiness to have nappies to change and if that's what they liked who was Harry to deny them their joy?

He could start buying clothes, and books, and give the Twins and Lee a stereo that would work at the castle and CD's with lullabies and that sort of stuff. Harry didn't know any, that was for sure. He was sure his Mum must have sung to him but he couldn't remember and the thought of Petunia singing made his brain want to vomit.

"HARRY!"

Harry shook his head and looked up to find three grinning faces. "Huh?"

The Twins fell down laughing and even Lee was chuckling when he answered. "Quit planning our children's future mate, and start thinking about getting some of your own. Children that is."

Harry snorted. "Not right now, thanks anyway. I'm too busy enjoying my second childhood. After the blow up yesterday with Ron and the girls I went shopping. You should see the Muggle games I bought. I was going to invite the three of you to come over and jump on the trampoline but I'm afraid that's out for you Lee."

"Do we even want to know ..."

"What something called a _tramp_oline does?"

Harry laughed at the Twin's dirty minds. "Prats. A trampoline is this huge steel frame with some sort of material stretched across it, rather like the top of a drum. You jump on it, do flips and the like."

He had spent a long day shopping and in the end had called both Penny and Brownie to him, both House Elves keeping themselves invisible from Muggles sight and Harry walking around both Marks & Spencer and Debenhams looking like he was talking to himself. He'd gotten everything from new pajamas to flannel sheets and fluffy cotton towels. Penny had loved looking at the cleaning supplies and he'd ended up buying the Elf a Dustbuster. Brownie was the proud owner of a stand up mixer that was bright red and would do everything from making whipped cream to kneading bread dough.

He'd ended up going from being angry and frustrated with Ron and his friends, to having a fun time with his new House Elf friends. He'd even found a Muggle sporting goods store and had bought just about everything that had caught his eye, from basketballs and hoops that could be set up to footballs and rugby balls to croquet.

The idea of the Twins running around his lawn with maillots filled him with equal parts anticipation and horror. No doubt they'd want to use Garden Gnomes instead of balls. Then again that didn't seem like a bad idea, if you could paint the Gnomes different colors somehow.

He brought the idea up to the others and they spent a good hour talking about revamping Muggle games to the Wizarding World. Quidditch was pretty expensive, only the upper-class families cold really afford good brooms. The only reason the Weasleys had even halfway decent brooms was from their parents scraping together knuts and sickles for a good year or two for each child.

Soon they had to stop brainstorming and finish stocking the shelves. In his mind, Harry was resolving to speak to Penny and Alfie and see if one of his Elves wanted to come take care of the shop and the trio. After all an Elf could stock the shelves, at least one that could read, and sweep the floors and make sure the new family had dinner ready rather than having to try to cook for themselves or sponge from their parents.

They could hear the crowds going by the front of the shop and every once in a while something hit the glass and Harry could just imagine the little Firsties pressing their faces up to the glass to figure out what they'd buy with their money.

The sounds also made them speed up, and they stopped chatting quite so much, especially since Harry was afraid he'd mix up the Smart Answer quills with the Smart Alec ones. The Twins and Lee had enlarged their stationary section, adding note pads and paper with headers that moved or flashed different colors. There were a dozen different color of inks, some charmed and some not.

Harry had even made his own contribution, creating Emotistamps as his Seventh Year Charms project. While the Dursley's tried to keep him isolated from their world, some things did slip through, especially since Harry was frequently left alone in the house if they wanted to go somewhere special. He'd taught himself how to use the computer, well, to a certain extent, and Harry had taken the idea of computer emoticons and improved them, making little figurines that grinned or laughed or cried and made stamps of them for students to use on their notes and the like.

The scowl on the Angry stamp looked remarkably like Snape.

"Oi! Harry! Best clear out, mate, we're gonna open a bit early." Fred nodded to the front windows where a line could be seen queuing up.

"Right." Harry said his goodbyes, slapping each of the Twins on the back of their heads, just because, and hugging Lee again. He really was happy for his friends; they were going to make such wonderful parents. The fun kind, the one that all the kids in the neighborhood would wish their parents were like.

Fred, George and Lee put on a mask of being jokers and pranksters, never being serious. In reality that couldn't be further from the truth. They were ambitious and cunning. Like Harry, they should have been Sorted to Slytherin. However, Forge and Gred knew what kind of a fit their mother would throw and hid that cunning behind their foolishness.

Still, Weasley Wizarding Wheezes was a rapidly growing company, adding new items every day. The Twins worked hard during the school year so they'd have a surplus of supplies during the holidays, and made forays into toy shops and specialty stores in Muggle London for new ideas. They were doing more to meld Muggle and Wizarding cultures than any Muggle Studies class.

In ten years they were going to be the richest entrepreneurs Wizarding Briton had ever seen.

As he _Disillusioned_ himself, Harry couldn't help but be a tad envious. They had their lives straitened out. They owned their own business; okay he'd helped with that but still, they were young, smart and in love and planning a family. Yes, he had money falling out of his ears, but Harry would rather have someone love him just for him than all the galleons, knuts and sickles in his vaults.

Too bad the one person who really interested him, had refused to talk to him since he'd killed Voldie.


	6. Chapter 6

Title: Haven  
Chapter Six  
Fandom: Harry Potter  
Pairing: Harry/Draco, various background pairings but the main one will be Fred/George/Lee.  
Rating: R  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. .  
Warnings/Squicks: Manipulative!Dumbles. I wouldn't go so far to say Weasley!bashing but um, I'm close. A few minor character deaths are mentioned, but not any of the main characters. Mpreg of secondary character. More warnings may be added as I write the story.  
Summary: Harry's graduated from Hogwarts, turned eighteen and defeated a Dark Lord. Now what is he going to do with his life?  
Beta'd by the wonderful Suki Blue! Thank you sweets!

Notes: First of all, I tend to totally ignore HBP and DH. I tend to think JK lost the plot sometime halfway through OotP, but that's just my opinion. So yeah, this is a total AU after book five. Don't look for quick updates with this story, I'll try to put up a new chapter once a month. Oh, and for any HP reading that haven't read my Spander epics, I tend to suck at writing smut so there will be much on the friendship and THEN the relationship and then a tiny bit of smut. LOL Hope y'all enjoy the show!

**Chapter Six**

After he'd left Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, Harry found himself at a loose end. He spent a good hour playing with Scrappy, throwing his ball for him and getting dog slobber all over him. He already flew for an hour this morning with Hedwig before visiting his friends, and she was currently taking a nap. Monty was currently asleep on a rock on the edge of the lake and Edmund was off hunting something, not because he was hungry really but because he loved to terrorize the local field mice.

The adder was such a Slytherin.

Harry wished that Ginny wasn't such a ... well, a stalker for lack of a better term. Infatuated wasn't strong enough of a word, that was for sure. He would have loved to pop over to The Burrow and spend the afternoon visiting with everyone and maybe getting a Quidditch game together. As it was, Harry wasn't planning on visiting The Burrow for at least a month, if not longer.

He had no wish to get his ear twisted off, or yelled at.

It was times like this when he always got jealous of Ron. Not that Ron ever understood. He'd give his last sickle in his vaults to have a hoard of brothers and sisters annoying him like his so-called best friend complained about. Not to mention various aunts, uncles and a cousin that Harry had never really met but the two youngest Weasley children always seemed to take for granted.

Right now it was Fred and George who stirred those feelings of jealousy. They had everything, a business that was theirs, they knew what they wanted from their life, they were in love with Lee and Lee loved them back and now they were starting a family. They would probably be formally bonded before the end of the year and in nine months, babies. A family all of their own to love and care for.

As much as Harry was enjoying what he was coming to call his Second First Childhood, that was what he really wanted. He wanted a family to care for, for the sounds of children to echo through the halls of the castle. To find a partner, a best friend, a lover and a mate.

Harry had the magic castle, and while not really a prince he was the sole Heir and Lord of two families. Now all he needed was the beautiful princess. Better yet, considering his inclinations, another handsome prince.

Too bad he had a crush on the Evil Fairy.

When Harry's eyes started to open about Dumbledore, he started really looking at everyone he went to school with. Luna's ... oddness, was actually a mask to hide how intelligent she was. Neville, once he gained some self confidence, was turning into a man to be reckoned with. He was content puttering around in his greenhouses or gardens but by the winter holidays in their Sixth Year, his dueling and DADA scores were level with Harry's. Not many people actually noticed the change though, which gave Neville an edge.

Personally Harry thought Nev would have made as good of a spy as Snape had been, if needed. He had a tendency to fade into the background with his overwhelming ... brownness. Brown hair, brown skin from working outside in the sun, brown clothes. People usually took notice of Neville in the Library or Common Room and quickly forgot he was there.

It was thanks to him that Harry realized just how obsessed Ginny was with him. He might have been getting better at reading people but he hadn't anticipated his best friend's sister being a few cards short of a chocolate frog deck.

Harry had also noticed a few things about the Slytherins. For one thing, while there was still a lot of fighting between them and the other Houses, they didn't always start it, and when they did start something it was so they could be in a position of power. Well, and so they could control the situation and get the other Houses to leave them alone.

Rather like a rattlesnake, shaking its scales to scare off predators, or a cobra spreading it's hood.

That had set Harry to thinking about all his past encounters with Malfoy and the other Slytherins, and what he saw he didn't really like. More often or not, it had been Ron's big mouth and taunts that started the fights with the Slytherins. Oh, it looked like Malfoy and the others were coming out of nowhere, but Ron was usually saying something in confidence to Harry and Hermione or the other Gryffs and, well, Ron's indoor voice was a lot like Lee's Quidditch announcing. Loud enough to hear two counties away and extremely critical of Slytherins.

Harry had been horrified to realize that he acted much like Remus Lupin, deciding that it was okay to get involved in the fight after someone else started it, or rationalizing that he was backing his best mate up. And he decided right then and there that unless the Slytherins had started it, he wasn't going to let Ron or the other Gryffs be nasty. Time and time again he broke up fights between the Houses, pointing out that if the Gryffindors took the higher road and ignored the "Slimy Snakes" they'd come out looking better, especially to the professors.

It wasn't the real reason why, but it was the one the other Gryffs could understand. Well, most of them at any rate. They still caused problems but not around Harry at least.

That was when his problems with Ron and Hermione really started. They couldn't understand his new attitude, and while Hermione was proud of his new 'mature' approach to Malfoy, he could still see her watching him at times. Ron didn't like it at all, which led to even more tensions especially since Draco was still a "Death Eater Wannabe".

Things got even more tense between Harry and the other members of the so-called "Golden Trio" at the start of Seventh Year. Draco and he had managed to communicate through charmed parchments for a few weeks, Draco asking Harry about every encounter he'd had with Voldemort. Draco wasn't trying to spy, or even taunt Harry. Instead he was looking for information and Harry had made a bargain for it.

Information on Voldemort for any books Malfoy might have access to that would help Harry fight the bastard. Even if it was just the name of a reliable supplier. Flourish and Blots had proven to be very inadequate, at least in the owl order department. He couldn't find any reputable books there on Defense or Dark Arts, or anything really that was more advanced than Hogwarts. Draco had agreed, pointing out that the Ministry regulated what kind of books were published, unwilling for mediocre witches and wizards to try something more advanced.

And so Harry wrote about Tom Riddle. Everything from First Year on up, going so far as to ask Hagrid about his fellow student one night when the half-giant was a bit pissed. It was incredibly personal at times, or at least Harry felt like it. But Malfoy came through, with books and a letter of introduction to one of the booksellers who bought his supplies from estates when a witch or wizard died out.

Still it had been odd, transcribing every dream, every taunt he'd thrown at Riddle, right down to what Harry heard when Dementors got too close. It had been a huge risk on Harry's part. It would have been so easy for Malfoy to use the information against him, taunting him in the corridors in-between classes with his Mother's final words.

But Malfoy – Draco – didn't do that. He didn't do anything. Well, other than send him more books. Ones that could have gotten Harry expelled if he'd ever been found with them.

That was when Harry knew he was in trouble. He'd been having inappropriate dreams for more than a year, ever since he'd seen Dean Thomas dress up as a character from a Muggle movie. Harry had never seen Blade, but he knew who Wesley Snipes was and Dean had looked damn good in the black clothes and Muggle trench coat. He'd gone to Fred and George for advice; they were pranksters but they were older and he trusted them, and had found out about their relationship with Lee. By the time he'd started corresponding with Draco, Harry had accepted that he was a card-carrying poofter.

He really did have a card; it was something the Twins came up with. It had glitter and a rainbow on it and two wands crossed. It even started playing "It's Raining Men" when it was out of his wallet for too long. It now was stocked in their shop with a pamphlet of beginning gay sex and a small tube of lube as the "The Little Wizards Poofter" gift set. Harry was terrified to look in the "How to Get a Perfect Ten While Muff Diving" set designed for the lesbians. He really just did NOT want to know.

So Harry was gay, and he'd noticed that Draco, when he wasn't being an arsehole, was pretty interesting. Oh, he wasn't nice, and the only time he was polite was when Draco was using his impeccable manners to hit someone over the head with them. Still he had changed from the spoilt brat that parroted everything his father had taught him, into a young man who was beginning to think for himself and stand up for his own values, something Harry understood and respected.

Okay, so Draco also started wearing a pair of skin tight dragonhide leather pants that made his arse look like a fine peach Harry couldn't help but want to nibble on. That was beside the point.

Harry huffted at himself. He was hot for Draco Malfoy, Ice Prince of Slytherin. He'd accepted that fact last November, and had it reinforced by the Draco who had come back to school after winter hols. What had happened, Harry never knew, but the Draco who had walked back into school in January had been much more serious with an air of sadness.

Whatever it was, Crabbe and Goyle, his bodyguards, never returned with him, and at breakfast the next morning back, Draco Malfoy had stood up on the middle of the Slytherin table and proclaimed to one and all that he refused to follow the half-blood hypocrite Voldemort, also known as Tom Riddle. In fact he refused to follow anyone ever again, seeing how even the so-called good guys weren't always good. That last was said as he defiantly looked at the Headmaster, his chin tilted up with an arrogant, rebellious look on his face.

Harry had stood up and starting applauding, leading half the student body. He figured it was better than the alternative, which was grabbing Draco and snogging him until they both passed out from lack of oxygen.

Eventually they had become friends. Maybe not close friends. Harry was afraid of getting too close. While he was sure of his feelings, that of unrequited lust and a healthy bit of like, he had worked too hard to win Draco's friendship to press for more. Still they had enjoyed talking back and forth, using the parchments. Harry secretly enjoyed Draco's caustic attitude, finding himself laughing when Draco mimicked Ginny Weasley in one of her snits. The only Weasleys Draco liked were the Twins, mostly because after he'd stood up and said that about Voldemort, they'd sent him a deluxe package of Wheezes, including a shirt that read "Why Be a Minion When I'd Make a Better Evil Overlord?"

Harry loved that shirt. It was a bit too tight and went well with the leather pants Draco had taken to wearing during his rebellion.

So the fact that Harry hadn't heard from Draco since he'd blasted Voldemort out of existence earlier in the month was bothering him. After graduation, Draco had gone back to Malfoy Manor to live. Harry wasn't sure that was such a great idea, there had been something in the set of Draco's jaw that said the young man was forcing himself to live at the family home, but Draco had insisted. Now he wasn't answering anyone's floo calls or owls. He could call Pansy, but for one she was in Italy somewhere with her boyfriend Blaise, meeting his family.

And two, Pansy scared him. A lot.

"Bollocks!" Harry threw down the Quidditch book he was trying to read. He needed to do something. iAnything/i. Even if he showed up at Malfoy Manor and Draco tossed him out on his arse, then at least he'd know something. He'd managed to keep his worry at bay for a while but now that things were starting to settle down his brain was going into overdrive. Again.

Harry hated it when too many thoughts ran through his head. He started getting paranoid, and wondering what he'd done or said to make Draco mad at him. Did he say something that really offended the prickly Slytherin and didn't realize it? Now that Voldemort was dead, did Draco just have no need of a friendship with him anymore? Was it just a way of manipulating the Boy-Who-Lived?

The last time he talked to Draco in person did he have bad breath?

When he thought too much, Harry's brain turned into a frightening combination of Mad-Eye Moody and a twelve year old fangirl. Well, when it came to Draco at least.

It could have been worse, his brain could have been a combo of Moody and Colin Creevy.

_"You're being ssstupid, you do realizsse thisss?"_

Edmund must have come home, he was curled up on his desk and looking at him through heavily lidded eyes.

_"Yeah, I know. It's jussst ... it ssseemsss like no matter what, Draco Bloody Malfoy hasss me tied up in knotsss."_

_"Mammalsss. You think too much. Go. Sssee your friend. He'll either talk to you or won't, but either way you won't be ssscurrying like a sssquirrl whossse lossst it's nutsss any longer."_

Harry rolled his eyes. _"Fuck. I mussst be bad if you're comparing me to rodentsss."_

_"Yesss. You are. Go away. You're scaring off the micsse. That'sss my job."_

There was no help for it. Harry was going to have to face the Dragon in his den.

TBC ...

_AN: This chapter was to get in Harry's head a bit, and some background. Draco shows up in the next bit, I swear! And I just wrote their first kissing scene so it shouldn't be too much longer. Just so y'all know._


	7. Chapter 7

Title: Haven  
Chapter Seven  
Pairing: Harry/Draco, various background pairings but the main one will be Fred/George/Lee.  
Rating: R  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. .  
Warnings/Squicks: Manipulative!Dumbles. I wouldn't go so far to say Weasley!bashing but um, I'm close. A few minor character deaths are mentioned, but not any of the main characters. Mpreg of secondary character. More warnings may be added as I write the story.  
Summary: Harry's graduated from Hogwarts, turned eighteen and defeated a Dark Lord. Now what is he going to do with his life?  
Beta'd by the wonderful Suki Blue. Thank you dearest!

Notes: First of all, I tend to totally ignore HBP and DH. I tend to think JK lost the plot sometime halfway through OotP, but that's just my opinion. So yeah, this is a total AU after book five. Don't look for quick updates with this story, I'll try to put up a new chapter once a month. Oh, and for any HP reading that haven't read my Spander epics, I tend to suck at writing smut so there will be much on the friendship and THEN the relationship and then a tiny bit of smut. LOL Hope y'all enjoy the show!

**Chapter Seven**

Malfoy Manor was a diamond in the ruff of the downlands of Salisbury Plains. Located outside of the Muggle town of Amesbury, it was nested in between two rolling hills. Off in the distance there was a stand of trees, and at least one of the hills were covered in red flowers. It was a beautiful even if it was hidden in the middle of a highly populated area. It always struck Harry as odd that Malfoy Manor was in such a Muggleish, touristy area but then he realized it was probably built when the Normans first came to England, long before people started selling tee-shirts and key chains with Stonehenge on them.

The Manor itself was beautiful. Manicured laws surrounded the enormous house that gleamed white in the bright summer sunshine. There were while pillars and fancy windows that most likely had fancier names and other architectural details that Harry had no names for that made the Manor look incredibly posh.

There were no gates around the Manor, just wards, and either they recognized that Harry meant no harm to anyone in the house or at some point in time Draco had set them up to allow him in. Either way, nothing stopped him as he walked up the long gravel pathway lined with flowers and potion ingredients to the front door.

Well, Harry assumed they were potions ingredients. What else would an old Slytherin family like the Malfoy's have?

Before Harry could reach the door though, a ward stopped him and he heard a popping sound from behind him. He turned to find an androgynous house-elf in a flowered pillow case behind him. The Pillow case was clean and looked freshly ironed, and the corners were carefully pointed with made the little elf look even odder since it was too big for it and it's shoulders didn't fit into it.

"Daisy is sorry, Sir, but Master Malfoy is saying that no ones be disturbing him."

Part of Harry's mind registered the elf's name was Daisy, either that or the Malfoy elves were _really_ weird. But most of him was worried about Draco. "Daisy, does your Master say that I can't visit him, or is it everyone he is refusing?"

The little elf twisted her hands for a moment and then started pulling at her ears in agitation. "Daisy does not know, Sir! Master say no one, but since winter no one else has come."

Harry sighed. Something was going on. "Daisy, can you get the Head House-Elf for me? I need to speak to them."

Daisy didn't acknowledge his request per say, but she did squeak and pop out of view. A few minutes later an older female appeared. Her skirt was made of dish towels, and tea towel with the Malfoy Crest had been made into a shirt.

"What can Mimsey be doing for the great Harry Potter, Sir?"

Harry smiled at the little elf's dignified greeting. "Hello, Mimsey. I'm a friend of Draco's," at least he'd thought he was. "I haven't heard from him for over a month, and I'm worried. Pansy and Blaise are out of town and Snape ... " Harry still hadn't heard from the snarky professor. He'd probably either burned Harry's letter or thought it was him being arrogant again. At least Harry knew he'd done the right thing, that was all that really mattered. "The first day of school is tomorrow and with everything that's happened I bet Snape has been so busy he hasn't had a chance to even try to talk to Draco. Tell me, is Draco all right?"

Mimsey looked at him, and Harry had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. The look on her face was a cross of Molly Weasley and pure Malfoy snobbishness. It gave Harry a kick to see that not all the Malfoy elves were downtrodden. Then again maybe it was the position of Head Elf that gave Mimsey such independence. Alfie had it too.

"Tell me, Harry Potter Sir, does you knows what happened when you killed the Bad Wizard again? To the peoples that followed Hims?"

Harry could only shrug. "I know it banished the Dark Mark from them, and released them from servitude." That was one of the reasons that Dumbledore used to force him back to the Dursley's, the fact that there were still Death Eaters loose and no one knew who they were. With a few exceptions of course.

Hopefully Pettigrew was scurrying about in the sewers somewhere. It would serve the bastard right.

"Yes, Sir Harry Potter, you released their spirits. _All_ of their spirits." At Harry's confused look the little elf's composure broke and she started twisting her hands together worriedly. "The former Masters ... Young Master's friends. They be back."

Harry could feel the blood draining on his face. "Draco's parents are here? Are they doing something to him?" Without even thinking about it, Harry loosened the reins he kept on his magic. Normally he kept a tight control over his magic, unwilling to let others know what he was truly capable of, but if Lucius Malfoy was doing something to Draco ...

"Harry Potter Sir is not listening! Mimsey can say no more though!" Mimsey was giving him a look that said he was an idiot, but Harry didn't stop to think about it. Draco was in the Manor and either unwilling or unable to talk to him.

Harry gathered his power and started searching for a crack in the wards. If the little ferret didn't want to talk to him, he'd have to tell Harry to his face.

After Harry tore down the Manor to find the bastard.

Without even thinking about it, Harry's hand held the comforting wand of holly, and instead of trying to find a good counter-charm or hex to bring the wards down, he instead just worked on focusing his power through it. One of the magical properties of holly was the ability to tear down old authorities. Malfoy Manor was centuries old, he figured their wards counted.

It had been this type of magic that had allowed him to defeat Voldemort. The older wizard had many protections against all known hexes, curses and spells. But he couldn't protect himself from Harry's willpower. It had been that power that knocked the bastard out of his head in the Department of Mysteries and it was Harry's will that banished both his soul and his physical form from this dimension.

The wards around the estate started to glow due to the power he was channeling into them, and clouds started to encroach the sky. A wind was beginning to whip, his hair flying about his eyes. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt, so there was no cloak or robes to whirl around him and for that Harry was glad. His robes always seemed to get in his way.

Harry was so focused on the wards themselves, that he never noticed the front door opening or the pale figure standing there watching him. Beads of sweat began to trickle down his forehead and into his eyes but he ignored it in favor of trying to batter his way into the house.

Suddenly the wards were down and Harry fell forward, his magic keeping him from falling even as he worked to bring himself back under control. He didn't understand, he hadn't broken through ...

"I should have known you'd be too nosy and wouldn't just piss off."

Harry dusted himself off and glared at his friend. "Yeah, well excuse me for thinking you might be laying dead in a pool of blood or something. Here I thought we were friends. If you just wanted me to piss off you should have told me; the silent treatment doesn't really work with me."

"I'm here and I don't have a massive head wound so you can leave now."

Harry took a good look at Draco Malfoy. His hair was longer but it was slightly unkempt. Oh, it wasn't dirty or anything but it didn't have its usual luster. Draco's hair usually shone and Harry had wondered if he had some nighttime ritual of brushing it for an hour a night to get it so ... shiny. Likewise Draco's skin was still flawless but he was pale and if Harry concentrated he could see the shadows and bags under his eyes through the glamors.

And what Draco couldn't hide was his nervousness. He'd gotten jumpy after the winter hols, but by Easter he'd calmed down. Now Draco reminded him of a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Wary and waiting for something to happen.

"There's something making you hurt, Draco, so I'm not going to leave unless you throw me out on my arse. Besides, I thought you'd love to hear about the fact I've gone shopping for a new wardrobe."

Draco still made no move to invite him in, but he did give Harry a glance to see what he was wearing. "Still buying off-the-rack, eh? Still, it's better than your usual rags. I hope you haven't gone insane and done something stupid like buy a pair of leather trousers or, Merlin forbid, got a tattoo. That would be _so_ gauche and nevue riche."

"You know, it doesn't do any good to insult me if you're going to do it in a different language."

Draco opened his mouth, most likely to argue or insult him some more but Harry stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder. "Malfoy ... _Draco_ ... please, tell me what's wrong. If I can, I'll help. But if you just shove me off your front step, I'll do the unthinkable."

A blond eyebrow rose as if asking just what Harry would do.

"I'll pop over to Italy and interrupt Pansy's trip and tell her that you've not been talking to anyone. Who do you think she'll blame if she has to come back here and deal with you? During fall fashion week or whatever the bloody fuck it is in Milan?"

Harry would do it too. It was either that or Pansy would find out that something was wrong with Draco and Harry hadn't done anything about it. He'd much rather have Pansy pissed off at Draco, thank you very much. He was a Gryffindor, not stupid.

That knocked the wind out of Draco's sails and the other man sagged for a moment. He then turned and walked outside, leading Harry away from the door and through the garden to a patio with fancy deck chairs and a table. Without words Draco waved for him to sit and Harry did so.

He remained quiet. Harry knew just how annoying it was when someone was pestering you to talk when you didn't have the words. The threat of Pansy had been made and now Draco would choose to say something or not.

Without anyone asking, Mimsey popped in with a jug of lemonade and some biscuits before popping away again. They were the high quality kind, with ginger and dark chocolate, and Harry got the feeling that Mimsey approved of him forcing Draco do talk.

He wasn't prepared for what he heard though.

"In a way, Potter, it's all your fault."

Harry groaned. "This I've got to hear."

"Seriously, Scarhead, do you know how difficult it is for someone to throw off the effects of the _Imperious_? Grown men couldn't do it, and there you are a scrawny little Fourth Year not only telling Crouch where to get off, but telling the Dark Lord to sod off as well! It just wasn't done. So Pansy, Blaise and I set about doing the same."

Draco was quiet and Harry wasn't sure what to say. Suddenly he laughed. "Figures that would be your attitude."

"What?"

"_Anything you can do, I can do better; I can do anything better than you ... _" Harry sung the lyrics under his breath. His primary school had put on a production of _Annie Get Your Gun_. It had been worth the beating he'd gotten from Dudley when caught snickering at his cousin. Obese, talentless Dudley had tried out for the part of Frank Butler, just so he could kiss Jessica Brently who was Annie Oakley. The problem was, Dudley refused to sing and dance, since that was for sissies and poofters.

Seeing Mrs. Watson, the substitute music teacher, trying to explain to the boy that it was a musical had tipped Harry over the edge and into a fit of giggles.

Draco perked up. "Exactly! Where'd you get that anyway?"

Harry waved him off. "You don't want to know."

"Still, that was exactly what I was feeling. If you could throw of the Curse, I'd learn how to do it too. I could just imagine how proud my father would be ... "

Draco fell quiet again and this time Harry waited him out. Still the hair on the back of his neck was rising. He knew how much Draco loved his father, how much he worked to make the elder Malfoy look at him with approval. Harry had never seen Malfoy Sr. even smile at his wife or son though. Maybe it was something Slytherins did in the privacy of their own homes.

Maybe Lucius Malfoy wasn't capable of it.

"It took a while. Not everyone has your hardheadedness and unwillingness to listen to people. We learned the basics of Occulmency, meditation, finding the center of our magic ... You've got to understand, Pansy and I, we've been taught since we were young to listen to our parents, to our betters ... the Dark Lord. Blaise's family, not so much but Pansy and I had been indoctrinated into the Death Eaters before we could walk. At first it was just wanting to resist the _Imperious_ but after Father was in Azkaban, we started to think."

Draco laughed bitterly and glared at Harry. "Of course we couldn't talk to anyone, much less you. Not that you and your shadows at the time would have listened to anything we had to say."

Harry snorted. "So sorry for not looking past the death threats, you prat."

"Yeah, yeah." Draco stuck up his middle finger and Harry found himself snorting lemonade through his nose. It was so common, so _Muggle_, Harry was surprised that the Malfoy Heir even knew what it meant.

"You're just so smooth, Potter. No wonder people throw themselves at your feet and offer to bear your first born."

"Shut up." Harry found himself coughing up a lung and his sinuses burned from the lemon. "Fucking hell."

"Tell me, Harry, can you breathe and think at the same time?"

Finally Harry subsided. "Excuse me for being surprised that you know such a common rude gesture."

"I had to learn the language if I was going to hang out with the likes of you, didn't I?"

Harry let that go ... for now. He'd get the blond later. Right now he could tell his friend was trying to say something but was looking for any excuse not to. He was going to wait Draco out.

It felt like it had been at least an hour but it was probably only five minuets before Draco continued to talk. "You know how Lucius claimed he'd been under the _Imperious_? It's the truth. Sort of. You see, in order to be able to claim deniability, the Dark Lord did place him under the Curse, but Lucius was willing. The same with my mother, Pansy's parents, Crabbe's, Goyle's ... It was part of the ritual of getting the Dark Mark. Of course if you had the skills, like Professor Snape, you could break it but most of the Inner Circle didn't want to, and didn't even try."

"That led you to thinking about Voldemort, didn't it?"

"Yes. I knew I'd have to choose if I was going to serve Him or not soon. We eavesdropped that summer, after Lucius was arrested. I was angry and upset and confused why the Dark Lord wasn't doing anything for him. After all Lucius Malfoy was his right hand man, and no one was as powerful as the Dark Lord ... He could do anything." Again there was a pause. Getting this story out of Draco was like pulling teeth.

"Blaise owl-ordered one of those Extendable Ears from the Weasley Twins. They don't care whose galleons they take. We heard my Aunt Bellatrix talking to someone else, her brother-in-law I think, about how you said the Dark Lord was a Half-blood.

"She was dead within the week."

Harry couldn't find it in himself to care too much about Bellatrix. She had killed his godfather. Still it had been his words to Bellatrix that had caused her death and that left Harry feeling ...

Well, amused at the irony really. Not that he was going to say anything to Draco. If Harry was going to tell anyone it would be Neville, who had his own score to settle with Bella. The quiet boy would never say anything but it might just let him relax. They had both been nervous about the fact that no one had seen Bellatrix LeStrange and this tied up one more loose end.

"That's why I started talking to you, Potter. If Aunt Bella had been insane and just spouting off, she'd have just been _Crucio'd_ and be done with, but instead the Dark Lord had her killed. _He_ protested too much, there had to be a germ of truth in it."

"Then you started talking to me."

Draco nodded. "And the more I, we, learned the less we liked what we heard."

Harry found himself smiling. "I could never understand how your family followed Him. I could never imagine you submitting to anyone."

"That is something both Lucius and Abraxas forgot. A Malfoy bows before _no one_. My great-grandfather died somewhat young. I think Abraxas must have looked to Riddle as a friend, or a brother figure, at some point in time and possibly Slughorn as a father figure. I know that my great-grandmother coddled Abraxas, her portrait still fusses over his in the Portrait Gallery. He died of dragon pox supposedly but I sometimes wonder if he was right in the head, even before that."

Harry heard the meaning underneath that statement. While many Muggle diseases did not affect wizards, and vice versa, there were some wizarding diseases that mimicked their Muggle counterparts, including several sexually transmitted diseases. Dragon pox was sometimes used as a euphemism in polite society rather than saying the Lord of the Manor died of some variety of crotch rot.

"Still I hadn't understood, or expected to what lengths my fa-- Lucius would go to. Or Narcissa. Lucius finally bought his way out of Azkaban by Samhain of last year, as you know, and commanded me home for Yule ... I'm not some stupid Hufflepuff, I knew what they wanted, they wanted me Marked. I didn't plan on going but I forgot that while Crabbe and Goyle weren't good at thinking for themselves, they were good at taking orders. Including slipping compulsion potions in my goblet at the table. Well, actually they had a house-elf do it, but the result was the same. The two idiots plopped down on either side of me and the next thing I knew, I was on the train going home, and my former bodyguards were my keepers."

Harry tried to keep his face from showing what he was thinking. He was sure that Draco didn't want his sympathy, pity or feelings of disgust. The thought that his parents would do such a thing, and to be subject to the whims of Crabbe and Goyle ... ewww. That would be just about as bad as having Dudley order him about. And while Crabbe and Goyle weren't smart, they were Slytherin, they probably took advantage of Draco somehow on the ride home from Hogwarts.

Right then and there, Crabbe and Goyle's names went on the list Harry kept in his mind of Death Eaters to be on the look out for. Bellatrix was dead so there was room.

Draco found his biscuits interesting once again. He didn't even look up at Harry when he resumed talking. "Having some ugly tattoo from a psychotic megalomaniac wasn't my idea of a Solstice gift. The Dark Lord was intending to Mark me at a meeting on the 31st, and then send me out on my first revel. I managed to beat the potion though, days before that, and got out of my room. Crabbe and Goyle tried to stop me ... I grew up knowing about the Unforgivables, and Lucius made sure I could cast them all before Fifth Year. And I had never really considered Vincent and Greg as my friends, more like my minions ... still it was a shock to see their looks of terror as that bright green light hit them square in the chest."

Harry couldn't take it anymore and found that he was scooting the iron lawn chair he was in closer to Draco, ignoring the screech of metal on pavement. He had to do something, _anything_, to make this easier for his friend. He put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. It was the least he could do.

What Harry really wanted to do was pick Draco up, sit him in his lap and give him a cuddle. Which would have been odd since Draco was at least four inches taller than he was and much more muscular. He wanted to tell Draco it would be all right, but Harry couldn't promise that and he refused to give his friend false hope.

It wouldn't be alright. Draco had killed his friends.

"Funnily enough, Lucius wasn't that difficult to deal with. Arrogance I suppose. The prat assumed that my obedience was so well ingrained that I wouldn't even think of fighting him. He used _Crucio_ at first, but then he made a mistake and switched Unforgivables."

Harry squeezed Draco's shoulder again. "He used _Imperio_." It was a statement, not a question.

"Yes. I fought it off immediately. He didn't even notice the fact that my will was greater than his. It was sad, he didn't even put up a fight when I managed to get his own wand away from him and used the same Curse on him. Narcissa found us in his study as he was making a port key. I still haven't got the hang of making those. Surprisingly, Narcissa was the hardest to deal with. She was usually so reserved, so elegant. That night though, you could tell Narcissa was Bellatrix's sister. I swear to Merlin, I've never seen that look in her eyes before, as she _Crucioed_ Lucius to get him aware. I was either going to stand down and swear my loyalty to the Dark Lord, to _Voldemort_, or I was going to die."

It was only the second time Harry could remember Draco saying Voldie's name. He was so very proud of his friend in that moment. Draco had gone against his family. He could have buckled under and been the sniveling ponce Harry and Ron had always accused him of being when they were young. Instead he's stood up for himself and fought for his life, even if it cost him his parents.

Everyone called Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, a hero, but in that moment Harry realized that Draco Malfoy was _his_ hero. Harry could almost feel himself falling in love with this sad, lonely boy that sat so dejectedly in front of him.

Harry clamped down on the feeling hard though. He couldn't act on it. He was here as Draco's friend. For that matter he doubted the other boy could even feel anything like that for anyone right now. He was miserable. Draco had killed his family over eight months ago and had been living with it ever since.

"Does Pansy know?"

"No. At first I was afraid ... the wards at the Manor responded to me and the elves helped dispose of the ... still if the Dark Lord found out, he would have wanted revenge. The Ministry would have jumped at the chance to throw me in Azkaban, they still would. I even erased the memories of all the house-elves except Mimsey. Oh, Pansy knew I'd been dragged home. She went to Snape and then the Headmaster. Bloody bastard said there was nothing he could do for me until I stepped back onto Hogwart's grounds but 'once he returns Marked he will be offered the same protections I give Professor Snape.' As if that old coot protects Severus at all! Turned him into his lackey is more like it. Probably gave the old man a stiffie thinking he'd have me in his power as well."

Harry's nose did crinkle up then. "Okay, ick. Considering how long the Coot had me under his power I really don't want to think about that." Then Harry remembered what Mimsey said earlier, about how once Voldemort was dead, his servants spirits were set free. "Oh fucking hell! After I offed ol' Snake Face! Their spirits ..."

Draco nodded. Now that he'd told the worst of it, he seemed to be relived, as if a giant stone had dropped from his shoulders. "Yes, Malfoy Manor has four new ghosts. Crabbe and Goyle don't really bother me. Well, anymore than they did in life. They mainly wander around the Manor looking confused. Or constipated, who can tell with them. Lucius has taken to following me around, berating me over everything I'm doing that has 'Disgraced the Malfoy Name.' The tosser has a ghostly vein that pulses in his forehead when I tell him it was he who did most of the disgracing. Again it's Narcissa who is the biggest problem, she's somehow managed to come back as a poltergeist. I can't go into a bloody room without having books and vases and ink pots tossed at me. Forget trying to sleep, the bitch keeps me up all night long no matter what wards I place in my rooms."

"Merlin." Harry finally removed his hand from Draco's shoulder, and since the other boy wasn't paying attention he ran that hand through his hair on the off chance he could get the wonderful scent of Draco to stick with him for a bit.

Well, he was a randy teenage boy and while he wanted to comfort his friend, Draco did smell yummy. The twelve-year-old fangirl part of his brain wanted to take a bath in whatever cologne the blond used or do something even more stupid like buy some to spray on his pillow.

Yeah, now that the serious part of the day was over, Harry's brain was taking a vacation. To get back on track he scooted his chair away from Draco. Despite the warm summer breeze he felt somewhat colder with the added four inches between them.

"Right." Harry had to focus. "I'm going to skip over the curse breaking and banishing rituals, because I assume you're smart enough to think of that on your own ..."

"Thank you for that. I'm not stupid you know."

"You are partially stupid for staying here alone for so long. And if you'd told Snape he'd be here or you'd be back at Hogwarts or somewhere else."

"One of my ancestors in the Portrait Gallery mentioned it was a Family Curse of some sort. Something about when Malfoy turns on Malfoy ... I haven't been able to find anything in the library though."

"Yeah, but you've not been sleeping and aren't getting a moment of peace. I bet she comes into the library every time you try to figure this out, doesn't she?"

"If I didn't know better I'd say Narcissa had Banshee blood in her, as much as she's screeching."

Harry winced at the thought and remembered the portrait of Sirius's mother back at Grimmauld Place. "There might have been, somewhere in the Black Family. I wouldn't be surprised. Anyway, you need to get some proper sleep, and I bet Mimsey has been forcing you to eat but still you need a bit of a holiday. Think of something else for a bit. Then we can come up at the problem from another direction. There's no other way, you'll have to come stay with me for a bit."

"I am not staying in some tatty Muggle flat in the middle of Surrey of all places."

Harry grinned. "Too bad you've been such a prat and not answered my mail, otherwise you'd know I've moved. Just for that, you'll have to wait to see where you're staying. I'm not telling you a thing!"

Harry would have to contact Alfie and Penny, let them know they were going to have a guest. Maybe the bedrooms in the Family area of the castle would be ready, that would be nice. He just couldn't see Draco Malfoy staying in a tent, even if the tent was fancy enough for a Rajah.

The thought of having Draco over made a huge smile want to appear on his face and Harry struggled to keep it inside. He didn't want to look like an idiot or, worse, a besotted, lovesick teenager.

Still he couldn't wait until Draco saw Caer Gwydion. The look on his face was going to be priceless.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight  
Pairing: Harry/Draco, various background pairings but the main one will be Fred/George/Lee.  
Rating: R  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. .  
Warnings/Squicks: Manipulative!Dumbles. I wouldn't go so far to say Weasley!bashing but um, I'm close. A few minor character deaths are mentioned, but not any of the main characters. Mpreg of secondary character. More warnings may be added as I write the story.  
Summary: Harry's graduated from Hogwarts, turned eighteen and defeated a Dark Lord. Now what is he going to do with his life?  
Beta'd by the wonderful Suki Blue. Thank you dearest!

Notes: First of all, I tend to totally ignore HBP and DH. I tend to think JK lost the plot sometime halfway through OotP, but that's just my opinion. So yeah, this is a total AU after book five. Don't look for quick updates with this story, I'll try to put up a new chapter once a month. Oh, and for any HP reading that haven't read my Spander epics, I tend to suck at writing smut so there will be much on the friendship and THEN the relationship and then a tiny bit of smut. LOL Hope y'all enjoy the show!

**Chapter Eight**

"Welcome, to Caer Gwydion, Draco Malfoy."

Harry purposely Apparated into the gazebo with their backs to the castle, just so he could see the look on his friend's face. He wasn't disappointed. Draco had lost that superior, Pureblooded mask of indifference, and was standing there with a look of shock on his face.

Of course it wasn't as fun as it could have been, since Draco had bags under his eyes. It was the middle of the afternoon but Harry hadn't had lunch yet. He'd feed his friend and then let him sleep himself out. A good meal and a rest without the ghost of his parents haunting him would do the blond a world of good.

"Come on, let's eat and you can gawk for a bit and then have a kip. I found out from my accountant at Gringotts that this place has been here for centuries, so it'll be here long enough for you to get yourself together."

"What ... how ...?"

Harry grabbed Draco by the elbow and pulled him to the picnic table he'd set up beside his tent. "Yeah, I was shocked too when I saw this place. I mean, I have no idea why it was abandoned, or why my parents didn't have a clue about it or anything. Apparently this place is in a sub-pocket of the universe or some such. I have no idea. Mr. Montgomery is going to be explaining it tomorrow, along with how the wards work and how he managed to make Muggle appliances work. You're welcome to sit in if you like. Maybe you could update Malfoy Manor a bit, or at least explain the runes and arithimancy stuff to me."

Draco sat down on the bench rather hard and that seemed to shake his brain into gear. "Yes, you would need someone to break it down into two syllable words, wouldn't you?"

Harry grinned and refused to take offense. "That's about how I look at it." Harry sat down and thought about which Elf he needed to call. He needed a chart of some sort to figure it out. Finally, Harry just decided to call Alfie and let him figure it out. "Alfie!"

There was a popping sound and Alfie stood by the table. Today in addition to his frock coat the Elf was wearing a gray waistcoat as well. Harry really needed to go shopping at some point, his House Elves tended to dress better than he did.

"Hi Alfie! This is my friend, Draco Malfoy. I was hoping you could help me with a few things."

"Of course Master Harry, I live to serve and have nothing better to do."

Harry found himself grinning, both at Alfie's sarcasm and the look of horror on Draco's face. He really needed to buy a pensive so he could relive moments like this, over and over. "Right. First of all, we need lunch. Whatever Brownie has available, I know he bakes bread on Sundays. Secondly, Draco is going to be staying with us for a while, so if you could ask Nog if the family wing of the castle is ready, that would be great. I want him to be comfortable."

"On to the best news though! I visited the Twins and Lee this morning, and Forge and Gred managed to get Lee up the duff!" Harry couldn't help but bounce a little in his seat. Now that he wasn't quiet so worried about Draco, he could really be excited. "I'm gonna be a godfather!"

Draco groaned. "Not more Weasleys!" And banged his head on the table.

"Don't do that, you'll get the wood grain imprinted on your flawless forehead. Besides, I know you like the Twins, you're just complaining because you can!" Harry turned away from his friend, ignoring the blond's muttering about Grandma Weasels. "Alfie if the family wing can be prepared, I want you or Penny to choose a suite of rooms, something large since it looks like Lee will be having twins himself so I want it to be a set of rooms for a family to grow into. I want to assign them a House Elf as well, one who can read and is a bit ... well, tricky themselves. The Twins are good guys but I wouldn't put it past them to try to prank an Elf, nothing mean mind you but they prank EVERYONE. Plus I'm hoping that whoever you assign can help out at the shop, so reading would be a bonus, so they could stock shelves, help clean up the shop and take care of the guys, make their meals, that sort of thing. Do you have an Elf that might be able to do all that?"

Alfie tilted his head to the side and then gave an evilish looking grin. "I know just the Elf, Master Harry. You leaves it to me, Master's brothers will be taken care of!"

Harry shuddered and decided he really didn't want to know. While he trusted his House Elves not to hurt anyone he cared about, he bet that whichever Elf went to live with the Twins and Lee could probably give the three young men a run for their money when it came to mischief.

Harry decided that if he didn't ask, the Twins couldn't hurt him too much. "Right, I'll trust your judgment Alfie. Before you go, how are Dobby and Winky settling in?"

"Winky was a very bad Elf, Master! She be doing better now, Penny has her polishing all the silver and brass in the castle on her own with sock. After new wards go up and you take over castle, you can bond and she'll do better after, till then work be what she's needing. As for Dobby ... I puts him in charge of yous pets, since he bring Master Harry's huge doggy with him."

"Huge doggy?" Scrappy was big but not that big. "What ... "

"Oh Merlin! Look!"

Draco's voice had a wobble in it and Harry jerked around to see what he was pointing at. Harry groaned as he saw Fluffy running towards him, all three heads giving him a happy doggy grin, huge tongues rolling and spittle flying. On his back was a colorful speck hanging on to the middle head's collar for life and Harry assumed it was Dobby. Scrappy, instead of being afraid of the bigger dog, was circling her happily, barking and wigging his tail.

Harry barely had time to take in all of this, before two huge paws pinned him to the picnic table and Fluffy's three heads fought over who would get to slobber all over him first. Not to be outdone, Scrappy was licking at his legs, his denim jeans doing little to protect him.

Adding to the madness, Dobby was standing up on Fluffy's back and looking over her shoulder. "Master Harry! We is happy to see you!"

Harry groaned and wished someone would throw a _really_ big tennis ball so Fluffy would get off him. He heard snickering and looked to see Draco had retreated a few meters away and was obviously enjoying Harry's predicament.

"Look on the bright side, Harry, they could be humping you instead of licking. That would make an embarrassing epitaph. 'Here lies the hero Harry Potter. He faced a Dark Lord only to be mistaken for a bitch'."

Great. There went any chance of Malfoy ever seeing him as something other than a prat.

This just wasn't his day.

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

"Good morning."

Harry looked up to find a sleep mussed Draco looking at him blearily. His hair wasn't gelled down or even combed and Draco had a red crease on the side of his face from his pillows.

To Harry he looked utterly adorable.

"Morning, Draco. Have you heard of someone named Morguese Treeleaf?"

"She's one of Fudge's cousins or in-laws or something. She's always throwing parties to convince the aristocracy she's more important than she really is."

"Urgh. No." Harry picked up the invitation he'd been looking at and waved it in the air, performing a wandless burning charm on the parchment so it quickly went up in flames, letting the ash fall on the blotter on his desk.

Draco sat down in the chair across from him and leaned his head on his hand. "What in Merlin's name are you doing?"

"Getting a stiffy over setting things on fire." At Draco's incredulous look Harry gave a snorting laugh. "Okay, not really. I'm going through my mail and burning anything from idiots."

"Ah. Almost the same thing then, isn't it? Too bad one can't set the idiots themselves on fire."

"Then we'd have a bigger inferno than The Great Fire of London." Harry picked up an invitation to join the Unspeakables and, with a flip of his wrist, sent it to the fireplace before casting _Incendio_. No need to take chances with something the Unspeakables had sent. The flames burned a bright purple for a moment before flashing out and Harry was glad he'd taken the extra precaution. A request for an interview with _Witch Weekly_ was next to go up in flames, followed by an offer to write his biography.

Draco watched him, more than half-way asleep. That was one thing he was thankful for with Draco. If his other friends saw him, Ron would be dying of jealousy and Hermione would be lecturing him on being responsible and using his powers 'the right way'.

"I wonder if you have enough power to light the Ministers in-box on fire without being in the room?"

Draco was instead wondering how to cause havoc, which was pretty much on par for Draco.

"I doubt it, unfortunately. You should go wake up and I'll have breakfast served here in my study. Mr. Montgomery will be here soon to explain the wards and the new wiring in the castle and you'll want to be awake."

Draco sighed and brushed his hair out of his eyes. "I suppose I must. I need to gel this mess out of my face at the very least."

Harry rolled his eyes. Despite his crush on the other man, he knew his faults as well and Draco, given the chance, would spend hours in front of the mirror. "You shouldn't do that, that gel shit will make you prematurely bald."

Draco's eyes widened. "It will not!" He paused and narrowed his eyes at Harry. "Will it?"

Harry worked hard on keeping a straight, but innocent, face. "Why do you think Hermione never mussed with her hair? She said she'd rather be frizzy than bald. Think of it, in twenty years we'll go to our reunion and there Lavender and Parvati will be with thinning hair and widening hips. It should be fun to see."

Draco however, wasn't willing to snark with him. He seemed pre-occupied with his hair and had pulled several strands forward and was currently looking at it cross-eyed. Harry snickered. It was too easy to pull one over on the normally suspicious Slytherin. He'd have to make sure to see Draco first thing in the morning more often.

Or course the twelve-year old girl part of his brain agreed with that, but Harry shoved that part of him back into his mental closet. "Look, why don't you go owl Pansy and ask her. Alfie will see that she gets it and for Merlin's sake tell her where you are at the very least!"

"Uh-huh." Draco pulled his hair away from his face. "Seriously, does my forehead look bigger than it used to?"

Harry frowned. Draco's behavior just proved how tired and out of it he was. Normally Draco would never show such weakness in front of him, much less fall for such an easy prank. Narcissa's ghost must not have been letting him sleep for all three weeks she'd been corporeal.

"Alfie?" The Elf popped in and waited for instructions. "We'd like breakfast served here in about a half hour if that's okay, and in the meantime can you bring a pot of really strong tea or maybe some of that coffee that the Goblins like to drink?"

"Of course Master Harry, yous is already short so yous don't need to worry about stunting your growth."

Harry grinned. "It's for Draco, not me. I'll stick with whatever Penny and Brownie has decided for me, it's easier on everyone that way."

Alfie popped away, and a few moments later Penny showed up with a small demitasse cup of the thick Turkish coffee the Goblins preferred for Draco and a glass of orange juice and a cup of green tea for him before popping away.

Draco absently took sip of his coffee and then spluttered. "Potter! Not only are your Elves mouthy but they make a horrid up of tea!"

"If you would have been awake, you would have realized that I asked for coffee for you, not tea. It's Turkish coffee in fact, something that I've been told is incredibly posh and very strong. Now, drink the rest of your thimbleful there and go have a hot shower. Mr. Montgomery will be here soon." Harry repeated the last part, unsure if it had gotten through to Draco's muzzy mind the first time he'd said it.

Shortly thereafter Draco left, still trying to discreetly feel his hairline. Harry was torn between amusement and guilt. He would have never said it if he'd thought the blond would take him seriously. Then again maybe Lucius had worn a wig and Draco _did_ have something to worry about.

The image of a bald Lucius Malfoy had Harry leaning back in his chair, giggling. After his laughing fit he continued to lean back in his chair, feeling rather warm and fuzzy over his current situation. Only part of it was from Draco, the rest was the fact that for the first time in his life, he'd slept in a bed that was all his own. Oh, the tent was his and had been new but it wasn't the same.

Last night they'd been given the all clear and despite not everything being finished in the castle, he had moved into the Master Suite, which had a huge sitting room, two small bedrooms and two master bedrooms. There had been three smaller bedrooms but Harry had decided he'd rather have a larger master bath and between Penny and the castle that wish had been granted.

He'd spent a wonderful hour last night after dinner, relaxing in his bath. It was large enough for the Twins and Lee to fool around in, not that he'd let them, and had Jacuzzi jets and ever warming charms. The best of both the Magical and Muggle worlds and the only reason Harry had climbed out was because his skin was starting to slough off.

He had then dried himself on one of the towels he'd bought, that were in a warming cabinet next to the bath. Afterwards he'd put on a brand new set of pajamas and crawled into a bed that was nearly as big as his room at the Dursleys had been.

Okay, Harry admitted he was exaggerating, but it was a big bed with fluffy pillows and a goose down duvet. The House Elves had to magically enlarge the sheets he'd bought for himself to fit the bed though, despite the fact that he'd bought king sized.

Now he was sitting in his very own office, which was situated a few doors down from his living quarters. There was a huge desk made out of mahogany and somewhere or other the Elves had found a modern, Muggle office chair made out of leather. Harry suspected that Penny had seen something like that at the department stores they'd visited and replicated it for him, which made him all warm and fuzzy inside. He'd have to do something special for her later, like a year's subscription to _Better Homes and Gardens_.

There were two parts of his new study that fascinated Harry. The first was a tapestry, ages old that worked rather like the Marauder's Map. The difference was that it covered his entire estate, from the wild forest that eventually led to the Forbidden Forest, or at least that's what the tapestry said, to the rolling hills that led to Surrey. There were also points on his map that were woodlands, or mountains that lead to other places in the Muggle world, although how Cardiff could be on the other side of one of the mountains, Harry didn't quiet get.

He'd spent a good half hour this morning, playing with the tapestry. If he put his finger at a certain point, the fabric somehow zoomed in. It reminded Harry of how Hermione trying to explain Mapquest to Mr. Weasley, only on his map he could actually see a herd of deer grazing in a clearing. He'd even been able to zoom into Caer Gwydion itself, finding the potions lab and the infirmary in the sub-levels of the castle.

He also found a level in the dungeons that was apparently the quarters for the House Elves. One of the Elves working for him was wearing a bright pink waistcoat and a hat with a feather in it. The most shocking part is that it wasn't Dobby. Harry had never wondered about the secret lives of House Elves and he _really, really_ wished he didn't know what little he did.

The second thing he loved about his study was his things. Books actually, journals from past Heads of the Family. Grimores, spell books, scrolls, three walls lined with information about his family's past.

To Harry, these books and scrolls were more valuable than all the gold and jewels in any of his vaults. For once he couldn't wait to start reading, he just wasn't sure where to start.

For now though, Harry had to wait. The tapestry showed a man in a bright red polo shirt had portkeyed into the gazebo. Mr. Montgomery was here to teach him a few things about the wards and how they worked. Harry grabbed a few Muggle notebooks and pen to take notes with. Hopefully with Draco's help he'd be able to follow along.

-- -- -- -- -- --


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine  
Pairing: Harry/Draco, various background pairings but the main one will be Fred/George/Lee.  
Rating: R  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. .  
Warnings/Squicks: Manipulative!Dumbles. I wouldn't go so far to say Weasley!bashing but um, I'm close. A few minor character deaths are mentioned, but not any of the main characters. Mpreg of secondary character. More warnings may be added as I write the story.  
Summary: Harry's graduated from Hogwarts, turned eighteen and defeated a Dark Lord. Now what is he going to do with his life?  
Beta'd by the wonderful Suki Blue. Thank you dearest!

Notes: First of all, I tend to totally ignore HBP and DH. I tend to think JK lost the plot sometime halfway through OotP, but that's just my opinion. So yeah, this is a total AU after book five. Don't look for quick updates with this story, I'll try to put up a new chapter once a month. Oh, and for any HP reading that haven't read my Spander epics, I tend to suck at writing smut so there will be much on the friendship and THEN the relationship and then a tiny bit of smut. LOL Hope y'all enjoy the show!

Extra Note: This chapter is mainly here to explain the wards around Harry's home and why he can have television and Muggle appliances. Because even if it's just in my head, at some point in time the Twins and Lee must be able to watch Monty Python dvd's. I have this image of them having an entire aisle in their shop with nothing but cans of Spam.

**Chapter Nine**

Harry thought about using his pen to stab himself in the ear. Maybe if he poked his brain cells this stuff would make sense. "Mr. Montgomery ..."

"I've told you boys to call me Jim." Jim Montgomery was an American, and his accent seemed odd to Harry.

"Jim then, is there any way you can explain how the castle exists and how it doesn't show up on the Muggle maps without the use of complicated equations or the use of the words tesseract, sub-space and pocket dimensions?"

"Poor Potty. Should have taken Arithimancy instead of Divination, shouldn't you?"

"Shut it, you, else I'll make you go to ADSA* and buy your own notepads."

They were all sitting around the table in Harry's study and Draco had been fascinated by his notebook. Harry had a sneaking suspicion that Draco's penmanship wasn't that great and he liked the lines. Harry, touched in the head as he was, had promised to buy Draco office supplies of a Muggle nature.

Still, Harry loved the mental image of Draco venturing into ASDA for his own notebooks, which was where Harry had bought his. Especially since they were having Back to School sales. All those Muggle children, running about screaming while their parents chatted in the aisles. It would be a mad house!

With a shock, Harry realized it was September 1st. For the first time in seven years he wasn't going to ride the Hogwarts Express and wouldn't have to listen to the Sorting Hat, or Ron complaining about when they were going to eat and Hermione shushing him. It was a bittersweet feeling. On one hand he was glad to be away from Dumbledore and his intrigues, but Harry did miss the Hogwarts of his early years, back when he was innocent and naïve.

He pushed those thoughts away as he watched Jim sketch out a tall rectangle. "Right. Let's go to an easier explanation. Think of the real, or Muggle world as you call it, as the ground floor to an apartment building. In the States we call it the Mundane world. Most wizards, those who don't have an immense amount of power, share the ground floor with them. Places like Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley were, for lack of a better word, shifted to the floor above ages ago by very powerful wizards."

Harry pushed his glasses up his nose in thought. "So if a Muggle was just walking around the Highlands of Scotland, he'd walk right by Hogwarts?"

Jim used his draft pencil to drawn in what looked to be doors to a lift. "For the most part, unless they stumble on the link from the second floor to the lobby. There are places in the world that have connections to other worlds. A tree that leads to Underhill, a cairn of stones that shows the way to Avalon, a lake that leads to Lyonesse, a mountain pass that leads to Shangra-la ... "

Harry gasped. "The Bermuda Triangle!"

Jim smiled at him. "Right! All of these places are real, but they're on different floors. There's a floor of Goblins underneath the Mundane World and Xanth is out on what we Americans would call the back porch. Every once in a while a Yeti from the Seventh Floor will get turned around and wander around the Ground Floor where the Mundanes are, or a Chupacabra will find his way up the pipes. Those little shits are worse than rats at skulking around and are nastier than Grindyglows. That's how the Mundane world has such a wide variety of magical creatures, but how they're never found. They go back to where they've come from leaving drunken hunters babbling about seeing a seven-foot hair-covered monkey up in the Pacific Northwest ... or little old British grannies fussing about the fairies in her garden."

Draco was taking notes faster than Hermione could ever hope to do, and making little equations out of numbers and funny symbols. "So someone in Potter's family built this castle and moved it from the Muggle floor to another one?"

"Right in one!" Jim grinned delightedly at Draco and the blond smiled back. Maybe Harry would try to learn Arithimancy if Draco was that interested. The older man got up and went to the tapestry hanging on the wall. "Look here, if you follow the road that leads up to the castle, it comes out on a back road in Surrey. The path through the forest here will come out in a wooded area outside of Scarborough and if you go in one direction on your beach, you'll end up in Blackpool and the other you'll in up in Cardiff." Jim came over to sit down at the table again and frowned. "If I were you I'd look into either moving the connection to Cardiff or closing it all together, there some sort of weird multi-dimensional rift there that mucks about with everything, sucking all sorts of nasties into the Mundane world. Been there forever."

Harry was looking at the tapestry again. "So that forest in the north, it really is part of the Forbidden Forest, even though that's several kilometers away?"

"Right. And you've got to stop thinking in Muggle terms when it comes to size, Harry. If you brought a Muggle car here, it would take you longer to drive across your lands than it would to drive from Penzance to Aberdeen. You've got a right good bit of land here young'un. Some of the Goblin teams inspecting the boarders have found traces of both dragon and griffins up in the mountains. Now that there are magic users living in the castle again, this whole place will start livening up and I bet you'll find yourself overrun with all sorts of magical critters."

Harry found himself grinning. "Wicked!" He missed Hagrid more than ever at the moment. His old friend would have loved exploring. Harry made a mental note to do just that, not only so he could learn about the lands surrounding the castle, but in honor of his old friend. "Right, tell me about these new wards."

"Want me to keep it simple?"

Harry let out a great sigh. "Please, and then maybe if you have a manual or something you can leave it and Draco or the Twins and Lee can explain it to me."

Draco snorted and Harry could have sworn Harry heard a soft 'idiot' from the blond but he ignored him. They were supposed to have a lobster salad for lunch and if Penny caught Harry kicking Draco, even if it was under the table, she might not let him have any.

Jim rummaged through his briefcase and pulled out what looked to be a bag of rocks. They had been tumbled and were smooth and were almost the same color of orange used by the Chudley Cannons. "These are sunstones, a variety of feldspar with a bit of hematite mixed in, red hematite and that's part of what gives it its color. Now, you Brits don't seem to be all that fascinated with the uses of gemstones and crystals in magic, while us Americans find them just as fascinating as potions. Sunstone has several properties, depending how it's used. We'll be using it for its protective and energizing properties. Our teams have replaced shingles on the roof, certain strategic stones in the walls, even the loose gravel on certain parts of the parapets and on the walkways around the castle have been replaced with sunstones. I want you to think of these as a type of solar battery."

"Bat-Harry? Does this mean I get to hit you, Scarhead?"

Harry picked up a left over bit of paper where Harry had given up taking notes and crumpled it up and threw it at the blond. "Prat! Solar batteries soak up the energy of the sun and turn it into electricity."

Draco rolled his eyes. "I keep telling you that I'm not _that_ ignorant about Muggle things ... I just find the mental picture of hitting you over the head with a Beater's bat much more fun than wiring and plugs."

Jim cleared his throat and Harry sheepishly looked down. He'd gotten caught up in fighting with Draco and had almost forgotten the other man's presence. "Sorry."

Draco, for his part, didn't look sorry at all. He sat there with a smug look on his face. Harry wanted to hit him. Or kiss him. Okay, he wanted to do both. He knew that wasn't exactly a normal feeling but considering the Twins and Lee were the most successful romance that Harry knew of in his age group and his adult role models were the Weasleys, and even Arthur Weasley admitted he was hen pecked, and the Dursleys.

Just thinking about Petunia and Vernon sharing a marriage bed was enough to warp Harry's brain.

"_How_ the sunstones work ... " Jim gave both of them a mild glare and Harry forced himself to pay attention. "Is rather like solar batteries. They absorb residual energy from the wards, the sun, the power of the wind hitting the shingles. They even take in extra energies from you and your House Elves. When you use your magic, say to levitate a trunk up the stairs, what magic isn't used on the trunk goes to the sunstones scattered around. That energy in turns, fuels the wards, as well as allowing you to use Mundane technology. We installed special plug-ins for your TV and appliances, and you have a supply of special batteries made out of sunstones for your Walkmans, CD Players and the like."

Visions of all the telly shows he'd heard from his cupboard but not really seen ran through Harry's head. "Wicked! Do I need to buy any special kind of equipment?"

Jim shook his head. "Nope. We've taken care of that for you. Now if you want working Internet and satellite, then you need to fix up one of your homes in the Mundane world, and we can link it to the castle. Like a relay station. Costs a good chunk of change but it's not like you've been pinching pennies on this remodel kid."

"Brilliant! I know of two homes I want modified already!" He'd send Penny and the rest of the House Elves to clean up Grimmauld Place, and while he hadn't seen it yet apparently he had a cottage near the beach in Brighton. He'd been waiting until the wards at the castle were set up to inspect the place, but decided to pop over later that day.

The meeting soon turned into a lesson in warding and quantum physics or something for Draco, while Harry made lists of what kind of videos and music he wanted to buy. He even had a list of movies he thought the Twins and Lee might like, but he wasn't sure about that.

There were only so many times Harry could listen to _Spamalot_ and not go insane, and he was sure once the twins got a hold of the movie, he'd never hear the end of it.

After Draco had dragged every Arithimancy equation out of Jim, the man turned the discussion back to the wards. "We'll be ready to raise the permanent wards on Friday. The Heart of the castle is in the lowest level of the dungeons, three floors down. I know you haven't been taught all this fun Pureblooded, Lord of the Manor stuff, kiddo, so I'll walk it through with you now and your buddy here will fill you in on anything you're confused about later.

"Basically, since we're not technically in the United Kingdom and do not fall under the Ministry's rules, we'll be using Blood Wards. These will work as long as you consider Caer Gwydion your home."

Harry couldn't help but flinch at those words. Jim was looking down at his day planner but Draco noticed and raised his eyebrow in question. Harry just shook his head. Now was not the time to go into it and even if it was he wasn't sure he wanted to talk to Draco about it. The Twins and Lee, yeah, but Draco was too ... Draco. Harry had a crush on him, yeah, and considered him a friend but he wasn't sure baring his insecurities from his childhood with the blond was a good idea.

Jim continued, thank Merlin, and Harry turned his attention back to the man. "We'll use a special dagger, and you'll bleed on a big crystal that's set into the ground, surrounded by a complicated set of runes. A few words of Latin and the mojo is up and working. If someone did manage to slip into your lands, you'll know. The floo will only work outward, unless you connect it personally. Like you can connect it to the house where we'll be setting up the Internet and satellite relays and then floo out from there. If you place the property under the _Fidelus_, that would make it doubly safe."

Jim pulled out a modern looking Muggle key from his briefcase. "I know you know this, Harry, but I'll go over it again. We'll be giving you twenty keys. These keys will not only serve as portkeys, but will allow people to Apparate directly into the castle. If they're people you consider family, give them one of the blue keys and if it's just someone visiting give them a red one and that will send the visitors to a receiving room. Family has unlimited access to the castle and can pretty much pop up anywhere but private quarters that are not their own."

Harry pushed his glasses up his nose. "What if I need more keys? Can I make them myself?"

"It is ... strongly suggested that you buy Goblin made keys. They have a guarantee for safety and confidentiality. For instance if you were to give Draco here a key ... he wouldn't be able to give it to anyone else or even tell someone about it. It really is the best way to go."

Harry nodded. He might be able to do it as well but it would probably require lots of studying and Runes or something. He had the money so he'd just buy it, it would be much easier.

Draco was frowning at his notes. "What if someone does manage to, say, follow Harry from the, umm, Muggle world to here? Or Cardiff or wherever, and they attacked?"

Jim nodded. "Good question, since there is a road that leads from the castle to Farnham in Surrey. There are several layers of wards, from notice-me-not to _Confundus_. On the off chance someone does manage to break through the first set of wards, the castle and the grounds around it for a kilometer are surrounded by even stronger ones. From ones that will stun any and all attackers if they try to take them down, up to ones that will strip a wizard or witch of their magic." Seeing the shocked look on both Harry and Draco's face Jim put up a hand. "Don't worry, guys, there will be plenty of warning and anyone with an ounce of sense will stop after the second warning, which is a modified voice recording of one of the meanest, nastiest Goblins from Gringotts giving a description of what will happen to them, including a few other threats like the removal of several body organs. "

Draco chuckled at that. "That might be fun to watch."

Harry huffed at his friend. "Draco, it's not like they're going to cough up a lung or something." He turned to Jim with a curious look. "Will they?"

The older man laughed. "No, they won't. Although if they attack the wards physically a few layers of skin would probably peel off. The best part about the wards, in my mind at least, is if anyone does attack the castle, the wards drain off that energy and feed it to the sunstones, which in turn feed more power to the wards. The more effort put in to taking them down, the stronger the wards will be."

Harry grinned evilly. "Wicked!" He could just imagine Dumbledore trying to breech his wards and the man's own magic being turned against him. Then again Harry doubted the old coot would be that foolish, but it was a fun thought.

"One last thing, and then I think you'll know pretty much the basics." Jim took off his glasses and leaned back in his chair. "When I say that you'll be charging the Heart of the castle with your blood and magic, that's exactly what is going to happen in a way. The magic in your blood will recharge the Heart which in turn gives you mastery over the castle. The more magic you have in your blood, the more the castle will wake up."

"Wake up?" Why couldn't anyone just come out in say things in plain Queen's English, Harry didn't know.

"Of course. Right now the castle is asleep, only a few of the portraits are awake, and none of the rooms have moved all that much. After Friday, that should change, and then the castle's ghosts should wake up."

Harry sat up, shocked at what he was hearing. "GHOSTS?"

Jim laughed. "But of course, this is an ancient castle after all. According to the records, Caer Gwydion has quite a few ghosts. Not so many as Hogwarts, but then again this grand old man's staircases don't move as much either, only when someone asks them to. It's really quiet convenient. You'll be waking the entire castle up on Friday."

Harry groaned. He only hoped the ghosts were helpful, like Nearly Headless Nick. If he had to put up with a Peeves or Moaning Myrtle, he was going to learn how to perform an exorcism.

*****

TBC ...

_End Notes:_

*Just so y'all know, an ASDA is the British version of Wal-mart. Can't you just see Draco's reaction to Wal-mart of all places? LAMO! 


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten  
Pairing: Harry/Draco, various background pairings but the main one will be Fred/George/Lee.  
Rating: R  
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. .  
Warnings/Squicks: Manipulative!Dumbles. I wouldn't go so far to say Weasley!bashing but um, I'm close. A few minor character deaths are mentioned, but not any of the main characters. Mpreg of secondary character. More warnings may be added as I write the story.  
Summary: Harry's graduated from Hogwarts, turned eighteen and defeated a Dark Lord. Now what is he going to do with his life?  
Beta'd by the wonderful Suki Blue. Thank you dearest!

Notes: First of all, I tend to totally ignore HBP and DH. I tend to think JK lost the plot sometime halfway through OotP, but that's just my opinion. So yeah, this is a total AU after book five. Don't look for quick updates with this story, I'll try to put up a new chapter once a month. Oh, and for any HP reading that haven't read my Spander epics, I tend to suck at writing smut so there will be much on the friendship and THEN the relationship and then a tiny bit of smut. LOL Hope y'all enjoy the show!

Additional Author's Note: YAY! Merry Christmas! WHOO! I'm actually posting something. This has been to my dearest Suki once but I may have screwed it up again so any boo boos are my bad. Hope y'all are having a good holiday!

**Chapter Ten**

"Merlin! What is this place?"

Harry had to smirk at the wonder in Draco's voice. They'd had lunch and Draco had a short nap while Harry had popped to Grimmauld Place and the cottage in Brighton. The small cottage was about a half a kilometer away from Brighton Marina, and looked out of place sitting in between the mews. It was a small, two-story cottage with the bottom floor being a rather large, open area with the sitting room, dining room and kitchen all in one open space. There were three bedrooms upstairs with two full baths and a toilet downstairs. A large patio deck out back had an old, 70's era grill and a boardwalk that lead to the beach.

It was small, but would be a nice place to visit the beach. Hell, for that matter, Harry wouldn't have minded living there. It was much nicer that Privet Drive even though it was decorated for the disco era. Penny and the Elves were delighted to clean and redecorate the place, as well as Grimmauld. Grimmauld had been mostly empty since Sirius's death; Harry had popped in on the day of his eighteenth birthday, claimed the house and _Obliviated_ and given Kreacher clothes before going on to the safety of the Twins and Lee's flat.

Today he'd left Penny and one of her Elves, Francie, supervising the cleaning. Total demolition was more like it. The Elves were tearing down walls, stripping the floors bare and everything from furniture to paintings were being moved to a storeroom in Caer Gwydion where Harry could check everything for dark spells and curses in his own time. The portrait of Sirius's Mum had been shrieking at the top of her lungs as a semi-circle of Elves gathered around and blasted a hole in the wall.

Harry definitely needed to find a Pensive. He wanted to remember the look of fear on the old shrew's face as long as he lived.

After leaving the Elves happily destroying walls and the cabinetry in the name of cleaning, Harry had gone back to the castle to drag Draco awake, and they had a spot of tea with sandwiches and scones and clotted cream. Harry loved it; he'd made many a tea during the summers for Petunia and her group of stuffed biddies but hadn't had much time at Hogwarts to enjoy such a thing.

Now he'd dragged Draco, kicking and screaming quite literally at times, into the Muggle world. They had Gringott's cards, which worked much like Muggle debit cards, so there was no need to exchange money. Harry had Apparated the both of them to a car park off Brompton Road and had all but put Draco into a headlock to get the blond to follow him into the afternoon crowd of Muggles walking the street.

Of course, once Draco saw their destination, all protests had stopped and the man's jaw had dropped. Harry smirked and answered his question. "That, my dear fellow, is Harrods. Four and a half acres of selling space of some of the finer Muggle clothes, accessories, products and services. Men's wear, shoes, fine jewelry, posh spices and foods ... this is where the upper class of the Muggle world comes to shop. Members of the British Royal Family come here. There are even twenty-eight restaurants so I told Brownie we'd have dinner here, you can pick anything from pub grub to haute cuisine, so I'm guessing .We'll find something you'll like."

A greedy gleam started to spark in Draco's eyes. "Really?"

Harry laughed. The blond was so predictable. "You're in for a treat, there's a special display in the shoe department right now, some designer made a pair of sandals with rubies, diamonds and sapphires and they've got a live Egyptian cobra guarding the case they're displayed in. It just launched today, I've been waiting for it before visiting. There will probably be loads of people in there but it should be fun. You up for mingling with Muggles?"

Draco sniffed and brushed imaginary dirt from his trousers. They were both wearing black trousers but Draco was in a linen, long sleeved shirt while Harry had gone for comfort and pulled on a nice t-shirt with a long sleeved shirt over it. "As long as they don't do anything disgusting, like push or spit on me."

Harry grabbed Draco by the arm again and pulled him towards the entrance. "Come on, your Lordship, I'll protect you from the commoners."

"See that you do, Potty! And watch the arm! Linen tears easily, not to mention if you tug on my arm too much it might grow."

"It's better than pulling your finger."

"What?"

Harry shook his head. "Never mind, it's a Muggle joke I saw on the telly."

"Urgh. How ... pedestrian."

Maybe Harry should have dragged the Twins and Lee with them. Yeah, it was a Monday so they were working but at least they'd get his toilet humor.

What followed was the most insane day Harry had ever lived through, and that included the final battle at Hogsmede when he'd blasted Voldie to atoms. Draco dragged him through the entire store, even to the lower ground level where they'd bought everything from designer shoes to a few bottles of wine so Harry could add them to his wine cellar.

It was, for the most part, fun. While Harry didn't necessarily need posh clothes, it was great to have things that _felt_ nice. Silk shirts, soft cashmere pullovers, woolen trousers that didn't itch. Soft leather deck shoes that didn't cause blisters or rub.

Still, Harry had to put his foot down several times. For instance, Draco had tried to make Harry buy a suit. The blond had fallen in love with a morning suit and had tried to get Harry to buy something double breasted with big shiny buttons.

They had almost caused a scene when Harry refused. He'd finally given in and bought a blazer, just to get Draco to shut up. Harry had also refused to buy cuff links, silk ties, silk handkerchiefs and tie pins. He decided if he refused to wear a tie, he didn't need a tie pin either.

"Carrying a silk handkerchief won't kill you, you know."

Harry pushed his glasses up his nose. "I use them for my glasses but that's about it, there's no need to buy silk ones."

Draco looked at him incredulously, "Are you kidding? One doesn't use a silk handkerchief, one just carries it. It's an accessory ... well, unless a lady is crying and in need of it, then you graciously give it to her."

Harry chased the last of his lasagna around on his plate. "Draco ... I don't plan on doing anything like that. For one thing, the silly wenches would probably auction off anything I might gave them, would probably even say that there's real Harry Potter bogies in the deal. Secondly, only a couple of girls I do know would actually break out in tears at the drop of a hat."

It was true. Luna, Su Li and Sally-Ann from Ravenclaw were all too logical to cry without damn good reason. Well, Su Li And Sally-Ann were, Luna was just too ... odd. That thin line between genius and insanity was non-existent for Luna but she was a good friend and Neville loved her so it didn't really matter to Harry.

Hanna and Susan, his female friends from Hufflepuff, were strong women. When they cried they did it behind closed doors, in private so no one would know. And Pansy, the only Slytherin female he would even consider calling a friend, was more likely to poison the reason for her sorrow rather than break out in tears.

"Ah. You're right, the only girl to break out in tears is your psycho stalker and her sidekick. Best not to encourage them any more than you have to."

They were eating at a pizzeria in Harrods and the food was wonderful. Harry felt full as a tick about to burst. Still the conversation reminded him of his last attempt at eating out with friend and how that bombed. "Ginny crashed a lunch with Ron and Hermione Saturday, and I told her that I wasn't interested in her that way. Again."

"Potty, she's not going to listen because she doesn't want to hear you. Same as all those other wenches that send you marriage proposals by owl, they've deluded themselves that they are your soul mate or some other such tripe and no amount of logic will work. The Weaslette is the worst because she's come into contact with you because her brother was your friend and that makes her think she has a chance."

Harry shrugged. After Saturday's confrontation he wasn't all that inclined to defend Ginny, and a lot of what Draco was saying was true. "I had to say it again though, to make sure it got through to not only her but to Hermione and Ron."

Draco shook his head. "I don't understand why you give those three ... ignoramuses such leeway when you hold a grudge against half of the staff of Hogwarts, as well as Lupin and Tonks."

This was an uncomfortable subject for Harry, but he figured he could talk to Draco about it. As much as he loved the Twins, he tried not to complain about their family too much. "Ron and Hermione, and even Ginny are kids. Yeah, they're the same age as us but ... they've been so protected."

"Brainwashed into the Cult of Dumbledore more like."

"That too." Harry sighed. "But Ron and Hermione are about to enter the adult world. Ron is going to learn that his temper has consequences, and Hermione will learn that the real world is unlike anything written in books. We've both learned that growing up changes how we look at the world. I'm hoping that they'll mature a bit and figure out how shortsighted they're being."

"What about the elder Weasels? Or Lupin for that matter?"

Merlin. Harry hated thinking about this stuff. Typical Draco would make him talk about it, thereby getting him back for making Draco talk the day before. "Look, Lupin, the teachers, Arthur Weasley and the Aurors who were part of the Order, they were adults. They know better. Lupin especially should have looked out for me. Fuck, a birthday card once a year from my distant Uncle Remus would have been great. Stopping by Privet Drive and taking me out to lunch once a year ... but he didn't do any of that, not even when I first met him on the Hogwarts Express. I sometimes wonder if the whole mess with Wormtail and Sirius hadn't come about, if the man would have ever told me he was a friend of my parents. That's a bloody crime if you ask me, one I don't think I can forget. The rest of the Order is just as bad. They knew my parents never wanted me to live with the Dursley's and yet they followed Dumbledore's plan just because he said so."

Harry closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. While he'd never really gotten the hang of Occlumency, he was damned good at repression. Problem with that was, if he got on one of the topics he didn't like, Harry could almost feel his magic swirling around him, wanting to strike out.

One of these days, he was going to find himself a good therapist before he went around the bend and ended up at whatever ward St. Mungo's had set aside for the barmy. That is if he could find a Muggle therapist who wouldn't faint dead away at the mention of witches, wizards and dragons and the like.

A warm hand fell on his arm and Harry knew if he opened his eyes Draco would be looking at him with concern. He couldn't look though, because Harry knew he'd fall apart at the first sign of true sympathy.

Draco seemed to sense this and, after a moment, drew his hand back. "I thought the Headmaster made a deal with the Muggles to keep wizards away from your home."

Harry's anger sparked again. "Petunia Dursley wouldn't know a wizard from a Muggle unless they were wearing robes and waving their wand around. For fuck's sake, Dumbledore had one of his pet Order members stationed down the street, and she became my babysitter! The Dursleys would have never left me with her if they'd known! How hard would it have been for Lupin or others from the Wizarding world to visit their "Old Aunt Arabella"? I can understand why they wouldn't tell me, but Lupin still could have visited and became friends with me. Yeah, he would have been stretching his promise or whatever, but Dumbledore has never had a problem going back on his promises for his so-called 'greater good', so I don't see why my Muggle Aunt had his knickers in a twist."

Draco sighed. "I can't bloody well believe I'm saying this, it just goes to prove that associating with Gryffindors makes any and all brain cells degenerate. Don't forget that Lupin owed the Old Man quite a bit, what with hiding his hairy little secret for years and even allowing him to attend Hogwarts. Lupin all but worships Dumbledore, has since he was young from what I've heard. You've got to take that into account."

Harry snorted. "I'll give him that for the first few years of my life ... but not after Sirius died. He, Nymphadora, Moody and Arthur Weasley threatened dearest Vernon at Kings Cross. Tell me, Draco, what would a nasty bully do to the object of his hatred after being confronted in public and dressed down?"

Draco looked as if he was trying not to flinch. "Strike out."

"We didn't even get three miles from the station before Vernon pulled over and beat the crap out of me. I could barely walk to the house, much less drag my trunk up the stairs and that old biddy Figg saw it all from her house. Yet no one came to my rescue, like they promised. When I wrote those damn letters Remus requested Vernon was standing over me, but I managed to put a bit of blood on the paper. Enough for anyone to notice, not just a werewolf. Either no one really noticed or they didn't care. A week later I found Tonks tripping and falling in Petunia's compost heap and told her what was going on. She said she couldn't do anything or remove me from the house, Dumbledore's orders. I got sarcastic and asked if she could at least bring me bread and water since I hadn't eaten and wanted to have the full prison experience. She didn't even give me her lunch that she'd brought with her. No ... the adults knew better and did shit all for me, so I'm not so forgiving. But Ron and Hermione have been brainwashed in different ways to follow authority. We'll see what happens when they grow up a bit. Then if they're still gits I'll get pissed off."

They were quiet for a few minutes, and Harry sat back and watched as people of all sorts walked past in the store. He desperately wanted to change the conversation but felt like he owed Draco his honesty after pulling the story of his parents' deaths out of the other man.

Besides which, if anyone could understand holding a grudge no matter how illogical it was, it would be Draco Malfoy.

Thankfully Draco seemed to sense Harry wanted the subject closed, and for once was being nice about it.

"I still think we should get you kitted up with a pair of leather trousers."

Then again Draco could have been just looking for a chance to mock him. Harry snorted and pushed up his glasses. "Yeah, so not going to happen, Draco. I'm not a leather trouser sort of person, you can carry the look off but I'd look bloody stupid."

"No you wouldn't."

"Yes, I would. I'm a rugby shirt and jeans sort of bloke. I'm too much of a geek to wear something like that. You're the one who's all posh and stuff. You can get away with wearing anything."

Draco leaned back in his chair and stretched and Harry had to clench his drool to keep from jawing. Or possibly just clench his jaw to keep from drooling. Merlin, the blond could drive him mad! "I must agree with that, I am the epitome of perfection and would probably even make bargain robes look good. Still, half of it is attitude and self confidence. You've just got to believe you can carry it off."

Harry sighed. That was his problem. On the inside, he wasn't the Boy-Who-Triumphed or whatever the newspapers were calling him these days, hoping to get an interview. He was the same scruffy, scrawny boy in bad clothes who tried desperately just to disappear. Whether at Hogwarts or the Dursleys, things always went better for him if he blended into the background and more than once Harry had envied Neville's ability to do just that.

"Draco, me wearing leather is like you wearing ... a pink frilly dress. It just wouldn't work, I'd look like a git."

"Don't be such a ponce, Harry, I thought Gryffindors had courage."

"When facing a Dark Lord we have it in spades. Trying on leather trousers is an entirely different thing."

"Chicken."

Draco was smirking at him and Harry wanted to either hit him or kiss him. Of course it didn't help that he'd been sitting here eating dinner with Draco on what Harry, if he had the bollocks, would have called a date. Draco had eaten pasta, which put him on edge. Who knew that spaghetti could be eaten sexily? Now Draco wanted to see him in leather trousers. Harry was unsure if the blond was flirting or just being a prat. Probably being a prat.

"And I'm brave enough to admit I'm a chicken."

Somehow or other, Harry had forgotten what a commanding presence Draco had. Two hours later, not only was he paying for both his and Draco's gelatos but among the jeans and dress slacks was a black and a brown pair of leather trousers. He'd also purchased a leather duster and if that wasn't bad enough, Draco had managed to convince him to buy three silk shirts: one black, one blood red and one with a snake pattern in silver.

As they left the store to Apparate home, Harry made a mental note. _Never go shopping with Draco again._

TBC ...

*****

_End Note: Harrods really did have a display with a cobra! To find out more, take a look at this chapter on my Insane Journal for the linkage. _


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